Surrounded by sorrow, rescue workers arriving in Turkey focus on survivors

WARNING: This story contains distressing details

After a 7.8 magnitude earthquake violently struck southeastern Turkey in the early hours on Monday, international aid groups started to mobilize as the country began to assess the scale of the disaster.

By the time the region was hit by another earthquake nine hours later, relief workers and volunteers were on their way to Turkey, including two Canadians who are part of the emergency response in the devastated city of Kahramanmaras. 

"We're distributing food, water, blankets, anything that we can get our hands on," said Aysha Syed, the director of fundraising with Islamic Relief Canada. 

Syed and her colleague, Yasmine Alameddine, spoke to CBC news in front of a city block that had been reduced to rubble. 

Excavators are working to move the heavy layers of concrete and bricks that came crashing down as the apartment buildings collapsed. Mattresses and curtains jutted out from the debris, which rescuers and volunteer residents picked through as they searched for those buried beneath. 

"You just feel the grief but you can also see glimmers of hope every now and then and that is also what is keeping us going," said Syed.

Turkish officials have said that 13.5 million people have been affected by the earthquakes, and the number killed continues to climb over 20,000 as more bodies are pulled out of the rubble. The Canadian government has pledged $10 million in aid, and will match up to $10 million in donations through the Canadian Red Cross.

The two women flew in from Toronto on Monday and are part of a 70-person team Islamic Relief has on the ground in southeast Turkey and northwest Syria. 

Syed says the international aid organization has permanent staff on the ground and some of their employees have lost family members in the earthquake. The group has also recruited volunteers and they were handing out food on Thursday, including  packages of date. 

Alameddine, a fundraising regional manager for south and western Ontario, told CBC News that she was struck when a mother came up to her with a young daughter, asking for a blanket. 

"She told me she's been so busy and preoccupied looking for her sister in the rubble she hasn't had time to even think about where or how she's going to sleep," she said. 

Their group was all out of blankets, she said, and it was a reminder of the importance of some of the basic needs at a time of great devastation. 

Before the earthquake, the city of Kahramanmaras had a population of approximately 500,000 people. It sits at the base of the Taurus mountains, and the snow-capped peaks and Mediterranean valleys made for a picturesque view.