How long can people survive?
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Five days after an enormous earthquake struck a border region of Turkey and Syria, devastating the two countries with the death toll surpassing 25,000, rescue crews continue to find survivors.
Several dramatic rescues occurred Saturday, some broadcast on Turkish television. A family of five were pulled from debris in the hard-hit town of Nurdagi, in the Gaziantep province in the southern part of country, four miles from where the 7.8 magnitude quake hit early Monday.
Later in the day, a family of three – parents and their 12-year-old child – were saved to the north in central Kahramanmaras. That rescue took place 133 hours after the quake hit.
While these successful rescues offer a glimmer of hope amid dire conditions, experts have warned that chances of survival for those trapped in earthquake rubble decreases significantly as more time passes. Below-freezing temperatures across the region has further reduced the odds of finding survivors.
Turkey, Syria earthquake left devastation
In addition to the climbing death toll, tens of thousands of injuries were reported and millions have been left homeless.
“Apartment buildings houses have been flattened. People are homeless in freezing temperatures with no where else to stay,” Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA, said in a video posted on Twitter Friday.
Benoît also added that more relief is needed in northwest Syria. “We’re concerned that there’s really been only one access point to bring emergency relief supplies (from Turkey into northwest Syria),” she said.
According to the United Nations, the first earthquake-related aid convoy crossed from Turkey into northwestern Syria on Friday. The region has already suffered greatly from the ongoing civil war – complicating earthquake relief efforts. Many areas of Syria have reportedly been isolated from receiving relief this week.
Here’s what you need to know about the urgency of rescue efforts following a disaster like an earthquake and the chances of survival for people who remain trapped.
Aerial view of earthquake damage: Aerial images show scale of Turkey’s devastation
How long do rescuers usually have to find survivors after an earthquake or disaster?
After a disaster like an earthquake, most rescues occur in the first 24 hours. Survival rates drop significantly after that – especially for individuals who have been severely injured.
Chances of survival for people trapped in buildings after earthquakes and/or tsunamis “decreases dramatically after 5 days and is null after 9 days,” according to a 2017 study from researchers at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. However, the researchers noted there have been cases where people have survived longer.
“The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74%, after 72 hours it is 22% and by the fifth day it is 6%,” Steven Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England, told CBS News.
How long can people survive after a disaster?
The amount of time people are able to survive after an earthquake varies significantly. For a person who is trapped under rubble following a quake, survival depends largely on their injuries, where and how they are trapped, their age, preexisting health, weather conditions and other factors.
Generally speaking, people trapped in the rubble of an earthquake can only survive about a week, experts say.
“Typically, it is rare to find survivors after the fifth to seventh days, and most search and rescue teams will consider stopping by then,″ Dr. Jarone Lee, an emergency and disaster medicine expert at Massachusetts General Hospital, told the Associated Press.
“There are many stories of people surviving well past the seven-day mark,” Lee added. “Unfortunately, these are usually rare and extraordinary cases.”
What’s the longest someone has survived after a disaster?
Again, it is rare to find survivors who have been trapped in earthquake rubble after more than a week, but there are some extraordinary cases.
After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck the northeastern coast of Japan, for example, a teenager and his 80-year-old grandmother were found alive after nine days trapped in their flattened home. In 2010, a 16-year-old Haitian girl was rescued from earthquake rubble after 15 days in Port-Au-Prince.
Security concerns, ‘extreme fatigue’ impacting rescue efforts
Freezing temperatures and “extreme fatigue” are affecting rescue workers, Belit Tasdemir, the AKUT Search and Rescue Association’s UN liaison officer told CNN.
But some international relief efforts have also cited security concerns in southern Turkey due to clashes between local groups and looting.
As a result, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief stopped its rescue and relief work in the Hatay region and “will resume their work as soon as (Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency, AFAD) deems the situation to be safe,” The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief said Saturday, according to CNN.
The Austrian Armed Forces also halted its rescue efforts due to “increasing aggression between factions in Turkey,” Lieutenant Colonel Pierre Kugelweis of the Austrian Armed Forces told the BBC. “The chances of saving a life bears no reasonable relation to the safety risk.”
Contributing: Associated Press