Photo of a city building destroyed by an earthquake

Rescue workers search the ruins of a building in southern Turkey on February 8.

Ahmet Akpolat/DIA via AP Images 

Article Options

Presentation View
Teaching Resources

Disaster Strikes

After one of the deadliest earthquakes in recent history, rescue teams rushed in looking for survivors.

Courtesy of Robin Clement

Robin Clement

Robin Clement climbed over a pile of broken concrete. There was no time to lose. Three days earlier, a massive earthquake had struck Turkey, a country in the Middle East. Clement’s team was just called to a site in the city of Adiyaman. Rescue workers had found three people buried under rubble. Miraculously, they were all alive.

Clement is a member of the search and rescue team from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). They were there to help Turkish rescuers, hauling in equipment to break through the concrete. They also brought medicine that helped save the people who had been trapped.  

Like hundreds of other rescue workers, the USAID team rushed to Turkey after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck on February 6. It was one of the strongest quakes to hit the area in about 100 years. Entire towns in Turkey and neighboring Syria were destroyed.

It was also the deadliest earthquake worldwide in more than a decade. More than 51,000 people died and nearly 119,000 were injured. But thanks to workers like Clement, thousands were saved. 

“It felt good to be able to help,” Clement says. “You could see in people’s eyes that they were thankful.”

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

A Race Against Time

The USAID team arrived in Turkey less than 24 hours after the earthquake. They raced against the clock and worked through challenging conditions. Strong aftershocks and smaller earthquakes shook the area. Temperatures dipped below freezing and snow piled up on the wreckage. Plus, many roads were blocked by debris. 

Still, for almost two weeks, the team dug through crumbled buildings and ruins. They used special cameras and crawled into small gaps between broken slabs of concrete­ looking for survivors.

“It was nonstop,” Clement says. “You work for 12, 15, 20 hours, you sleep for 5 or 6, then get up and repeat.” 

The Days Ahead

The work is far from over. More than 173,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, leaving millions of people homeless. In Syria, much of the country was already severely damaged before the quake. A civil war has been raging there for more than a decade.

Members of the USAID team remain in Turkey and Syria, helping people rebuild. Volunteers are working to provide temporary shelter in warehouses and weather-proof tents. They also help distribute supplies that have been donated, like food, medicine, and blankets.

Sarah Charles is a leader on the USAID response team. She says another part of the group’s job is to help other countries become as prepared as the U.S. is for natural disasters. And if there is another emergency, the team is ready. 

“People like Robin Clement are there to respond at a moment’s notice,” Charles says. 

Inside an Earthquake

Earth is made up of giant, slowly moving slabs of rock called tectonic plates. Sudden movements where these plates meet cause earthquakes.

Diagram by Marybeth Rivera

Focus: The point underground where an earthquake starts. The closer the focus is to the surface, the more violent the quake is.

Epicenter: The point on Earth’s surface directly above the focus. Areas near the epicenter get hit the hardest. 

Fault: A break in Earth’s outer layer where tectonic plates meet.

Seismic Waves: Invisible waves of energy released by an earthquake. They travel in all directions, causing the ground to shake.

  1. How have groups like USAID helped in the aftermath of the earthquake?
  2. Why do you think the article says that search-and-rescue teams “raced against the clock”?
  3. How does the author support the claim that the earthquake made a bad situation worse in Syria?
Skills Sheets (2)
Skills Sheets (2)
Games (1)
TEACHER SUPPORT (1)
Text-to-Speech