Calgarians grapple with devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria

Abdulsalam Mustafa left his apartment immediately after the first earthquake struck.

For the past few weeks, the Syrian-born Calgarian has been in his hometown of Latakia, Syria, with his mother and sister — visiting his brother, who couldn't flee to Canada with the rest of the family last January.

"All of us feel, like, stress, because it's a painful experience," Mustafa said. "[We're] tired because we can't sleep. We slept about one hour within the last 25 hours."

On Monday morning, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey, followed by a 7.5-magnitude quake nine hours later, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people.

Mustafa and his family have spent a day-and-a-half on the streets, staying out of their apartment building and away from what little infrastructure is left standing, in case something collapses.

And he's unsure when they'll be going back inside. 

"There are people who have returned," Mustafa said. "But we don't feel enough safety to go home."

Several aftershocks followed. Jolts continued to shake the ground in Turkey and Syria in the aftermath of the initial tremor. In communities and cities across the world, those with ties to the two countries are feeling the impact. 

"You might think that this is happening far, far away from Calgary, but because now we have such a strong connection with so many Syrians here … we are very much hurting, too, as a city," said Saima Jamal.

She's one of the co-founders of the Calgary Immigrant Support Society, and has been working with displaced Syrians since they first arrived in Canada.

In conversations with friends in Syria and across the country's northern border in Turkey, Jamal says she hears the fear and trauma in their voices.

"I have friends from Syria that have told me they've never witnessed something like this," Jamal said. 

"They're traumatized. They're traumatized much more than they were even during the war." 

In a ground-level restaurant in Gaziantep, the epicentre of the earthquake, people gathered to share food, water and resources and seek refuge.