ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Record low temperatures and heavy snow are making life even more miserable for more than 140,000 Turkish quake survivors still living in tents or temporary homes.
As Europe battles a deep freeze that has killed hundreds since late January, despair is hitting those who lost their homes in tremors in eastern Turkey several months ago. Many are struggling to keep warm with coal stoves or electrical heaters.
A magnitude 7.2 quake and a magnitude 5.7 aftershock in October flattened some 2,000 buildings, killing 644 people around the city of Van, a provincial capital.
Turkey has moved about 134,000 people into temporary homes but about 7,500 others are still trying to survive a record cold winter in tents with just electric hookups.
Gonul Meral, 33, has two children and has been homeless since October, when her landlord evicted her after an earthquake left her husband unemployed. She says her tent is so cold that water inside it is freezing solid.
“It is so hard, I had to fight to get a tent and I don’t know whether they will let me keep it because those whose houses were damaged have priority,” Meral said by telephone.
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