A magnitude-7.8 earthquake in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 near the provincial capital city of Gaziantep, Turkey, has leveled hundreds of buildings across the region, and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in that country and Syria. Another destructive temblor nearby rated at magnitude-7.5 followed later in the day. Aftershocks have rattled the region.

As of Feb. 7 there are reports that over 7,200 people in Turkey and Syria are dead as a result of the quakes, and that figure is expected to continue to rise. Thousands of buildings were destroyed—from relatively recently built structures to a 2,000-year-old castle.

Kit Miyamoto of Miyamoto International, a structural engineer and natural disaster response leader who has previous experience as a first-responder in Haiti and other quake zones, told ENR on Feb. 6 that he and a team from his firm are on their way to Turkey to offer assistance.

Miyamoto said in a Feb, 7 press statement that “It’s essential to move quickly and provide assistance to those in need. Our Turkish teams and other organizations deployed on the ground face an extreme emergency.” The firm is coordinating its post-earthquake engineering response efforts with both United Nations and local government officials, he added.

Original Article from Engineering News Record. Photo by AP Photo/Khalil Hamra