Isil's Report

Man i don't know what to say. A lot of things happened since i last communicated with you- and i don't know where to start or what to say. You know we have been over a big earthquake, and it is so hard to talk about that. The unofficial number for the dead is around 45,000-where as the official number is i think about 17,000. And i can't find words enough to explain what it was like. The worst thing was that we couldn't do anything. Around the ruins you hear people cry out for help-and there is nothing you can do because there is no equipment and than you listen to the sounds disappear day by day. It was horrible-and the way that people shouted to the ruins like is there anybody in there-all those sounds, the cries, the horrible smell it was horrible. I try not to think about it-but it is hard to do so. There is many people left homeless-they are all living in tents and winter is almost here. It is very sad. Some whole towns disappeared. And the thing is we are still shaking now and then and it is impossible to know which building is safe and which is not. There is big cracks in lots of buildings and there is nothing you can do about it-you have to go in there. Like there is a lot of cracks in the buildings of our hospital- the dean says all the buildings are safe-but nobody really believes it. But you know we just have to go there, we tell ourselves since it is a hospital if it goes down it would be one of the first places they will try to save. It is funny though, how you get used to the quakes. I have become a seismograph i can feel all the small quakes, for some time it was very panicking, couldn't sleep, couldn't stay indoors and i felt quakes all the times, but after some big aftershocks now i am all used to it. I wake up in the middle of the night, everything is shaking and i just feel too lazy to get up and you know hide somewhere so i just lie there and wait for it to get over. I realize we are all going to die someday, and i really don't care as long as i don't suffer for too long. After all i don't think that life is nice and fun, and there is nothing you can do to escape from death. And you know in turkey it is surviving that is hard. Death is very easy and common. And everyday just to go to school i have so many dangers that i face on the roads, i figure my chance of dying in an earthquake is much less then my chance of dying in a stupid traffic accident-so that's how i got over my fear of earthquakes.




				A first hand report of Turkey's Earthquakes from Isil Yildirim, Inbound from Adana, Turkey 1993 - 1994


	Isil Yildirim was an Inbound Exchange Student from Adana, Turkey in 1993 - 1994 and was hosted by the Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale South. After her year in Florida she attended Trinity College in Washington, D.C. for one year, and is currently a medical student in Istanbul, Turkey. Here is her account of the aftermath of the earthquakes that hit Turkey in September: Man i don't know what to say. A lot of things happened since i last communicated with you- and i don't know where to start or what to say. You know we have been over a big earthquake, and it is so hard to talk about that. The unofficial number for the dead is around 45,000-where as the official number is i think about 17,000. And i can't find words enough to explain what it was like. The worst thing was that we couldn't do anything. Around the ruins you hear people cry out for help-and there is nothing you can do because there is no equipment and than you listen to the sounds disappear day by day. It was horrible-and the way that people shouted to the ruins like is there anybody in there-all those sounds, the cries, the horrible smell it was horrible. I try not to think about it-but it is hard to do so. There is many people left homeless-they are all living in tents and winter is almost here. It is very sad. Some whole towns disappeared. And the thing is we are still shaking now and then and it is impossible to know which building is safe and which is not. There is big cracks in lots of buildings and there is nothing you can do about it-you have to go in there. Like there is a lot of cracks in the buildings of our hospital- the dean says all the buildings are safe-but nobody really believes it. But you know we just have to go there, we tell ourselves since it is a hospital if it goes down it would be one of the first places they will try to save. It is funny though, how you get used to the quakes. I have become a seismograph i can feel all the small quakes, for some time it was very panicking, couldn't sleep, couldn't stay indoors and i felt quakes all the times, but after some big aftershocks now i am all used to it. I wake up in the middle of the night, everything is shaking and i just feel too lazy to get up and you know hide somewhere so i just lie there and wait for it to get over. I realize we are all going to die someday, and i really don't care as long as i don't suffer for too long. After all i don't think that life is nice and fun, and there is nothing you can do to escape from death. And you know in turkey it is surviving that is hard. Death is very easy and common. And everyday just to go to school i have so many dangers that i face on the roads, i figure my chance of dying in an earthquake is much less then my chance of dying in a stupid traffic accident-so that's how i got over my fear of earthquakes.