Severe weather conditions are hampering the efforts to rescue those trapped in the rubble in Turkey and Syria, and are endangering the thousands of people whose homes were damaged by Monday’s earthquake.
“Thousands of homes have been destroyed, displacing families and exposing them to the elements at a time of year when temperatures regularly drop below freezing and snow and freezing rain are common,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder at a news briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
“Displaced families in northwest Syria, and Syrian refugee families living in Turkey in informal settlements are among the most vulnerable as overnight temperatures continue to dip below zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit),” he said.
Photos taken in earthquake-hit cities in southeastern Turkey show families huddling around fires to keep warm.
Eyewitnesses in northwest Syria told CNN the conditions there are “terrifying” with the quake leaving “entire families dead” and “survivors sleeping on the streets in the freezing cold.”
Temperatures are already low, and by Wednesday they are expected to plummet several degrees below zero.
An area of low pressure currently hangs over Turkey and Syria. As that moves off, this will bring “significantly colder air” down from central Turkey, according to CNN’s senior meteorologist Britley Ritz.
It is forecast to be -4 degrees Celsius in Gaziantep and -2 degrees in Aleppo on Wednesday morning. On Thursday, this is forecast to fall further, to -6 degrees in Gaziantep and -4 degrees in Aleppo.
Weather warnings are in place across the provinces of Adana and Kahramanmaras for winds of 50 to 75 kph (30 to 45 mph).
The conditions have already made it challenging for aid teams to reach the affected area, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, adding that helicopters were unable to take off on Monday due to the poor weather.
It is a race to get people out from under the rubble while they are still alive,” said CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh, reporting live from Turkey on Tuesday.
