>> days after powerful earthquakes hit turkey and syria, the death toll continues to rise. rescue crews are finding survivors under the rubble. what impact is this disaster having on survivors and emergency workers on the ground? this is "inside story." hello there and welcome to the program.

these earthquakes this month were amongst the most powerful ever recorded in turkey. tens of thousands of people killed on's that country and neighboring syria. many more are injured. the rescue phase is coming to an end with the focus shifting to providing shelter, food, and schooling. yet, rescue teams continue to work nonstop to find survivors trapped in the dark without food and water in freezing temperatures. despite the odds, though, there are some incredible stories of survival. one woman was rescued from a building on wednesday after being trapped for nine days. on tuesday, nine survivors were rescued from hundreds of ruins, including a 77-year-old woman. and two brothers were pulled from a collapsed building. they say they had to fight for gulps of air for days to stay alive. and in neighboring syria, a newborn baby was found alive a day after those >> hit.

her mother apparently gave birth while. under a five-story building. the child was found with her unbillable cord still connected to her mother who had passed away. let's now bring in our guests. and aid worker who unfortunately lost his uncle and seven family members in these earthquakes. from london, we have a psychotherapist who treats people suffering trauma. and in turkey, the executive director of the syrian emergency task force. a warm welcome to you all. i cannot thank you enough for sparing the time to join us. i know it is and incredibly busy time for all of you. we have been hearing about some incredible rescues that have taken place over the last few days. the last one was in genders.

how are you doing? >> thank you. since the third day of the earthquake, me and my organization crossed the border from turkey. it was one of the most affected areas by the earthquake. so far, we are trying to do good, but we feel we are disabled. there are very few resources. you feel like you are disabled to help anyone, which is what

makes us so nervous. this disaster, because everyone impacted by it lost a relative, lost a friend, it has made us really [indiscernible] >> that sounds incredibly difficult. you have my condolences as well. i'm very sorry to hear about your family, too. how are you personally doing? you spoke about the challenges everyone is facing. how are you personally coping? >> the first hours after the quake, i tried to speak to my family.

we feel anesthetized. we don't feel what we feel. i don't know how to express. the fact that everyone is morning there beloved ones, it is more or less a resurrection day. everyone is working without logically observing or being able to observe, so people are literally out of their mind and conscious. >> you are in turkey where a huge number of people are obviously grappling with some of the same shock that we are hearing about, i believe your organization is involved with distributing aid at the moment. how are the communities that you are meeting -- how are people there holding up? >> people are amazingly

resilient, first of all, because what they have gone through, i cannot imagine. just looking at the post-earthquake locations -- yesterday i was with al jazeera and other western journalists, and i just came here from touring the city center, and it looks like they are in literally a warzone. i have been multiple bombardments across the city, entire streets, everything is down. i spent some time in syria with victims of the earthquake that were being treated at the hospital. the folks that are already internally displaced, and they are -- the ones in syria are wondering where the world is and wondering why these wide-open border crossings with paved roads wide-open like your driving in london or doha or

washington, d.c., that the only line of cars going into syria are ambulances -- not ambulances going in to help save people, but ambulances carrying syrian refugees that have lost their lives in turkey and are now going back to be buried in their homeland, but everyone that i spoke with is stronger than anyone that i know in the world, especially the syrians who have suffered 12 years of the worst crimes of the 21st century and now dealing with an earthquake where russia and assad continue to blockade -- block aid from the north. >> you have spoken about resilience. is there anger, too? are people really frustrated about what has happened? >> absolutely. if there is a big fire, let's say, in a city in europe or the

united states, you will see ambulances and you will see police and cars and things like that. you don't see anything on the borders. there is no aid coming in. people are angry because not only have they been left alone to deal with the chemical weapons and bombs and things like that but assad, they are not left alone by the international community and the united nations, and people are really angry over the fact that the united nations is asking permission of bashar al-assad who blocks aid for these people. the fact is i don't know in the history of the united nations that a major of historic proportions earthquake that is so devastating that nine days a week into it, the united nations has sent nothing. people are rightfully angry because the world continues to abandon them 12 years on from the beginning of their revolution. >> we have heard a number of

very powerful words. shock, anger, resilience, too, but also numbness. presumably none of this is coming as a surprise to you? >> no, no. the numbing over the disassociated state is a very typical initial trauma response. often when you experience the death of a loved one, you may go into a numb state initially, but sibley because it is not possible to process and experience and the emotions. also, there are things to be done. your first guest described that. there's a lot of work to be done in terms of trying to save lives . initially, find survivors, and then sorting what is needed to maintain life and living. you said in your introduction, getting schools up and running for children.

there is not time for that stuff. there's a survival space now that people go into, and there will be other feelings, of course, of the anger. there will be all sorts of very strong emotions, but that sort of numbing, unreal sense of cannot process this is very familiar and people will come through that and then begin to process the emotional content of these things, which is pretty horrific, what they will be processing in terms of the loss -- there's so many losses going on. your second guest pointed out there has been ongoing losses in syria, so this campaign goes on and on and is quite horrific. one thing i would say, apologies, but your names did

not enter my brain. that's the way my brain is, unfortunately. the first gentleman was talking about as a front-line first responder, who was also having to deal with being in the event, and again, that is typical that first responders have their own losses and experiences, their own concerns about family, getting them to safety, and then have to deal with the fact that infrastructure has stopped existing. it is gone. the sort of things you could rely on, the ambulances, the roads, they just don't exist anymore. they are not there. the sort of things you might have trained to have in place so you can help people and safe people have just disappeared, and you are left as a professional with this sort of impotent sense of overwhelm, but you cannot do what you know you should be doing, and all of that sort of builds and compounds,

and it is awful for people. >> you just said the word impotence, and that goes back to the sense of helplessness, almost, especially this many days on after the >>. can you tell us a little bit -- i can see the rubble of air around you -- how people are dealing now with search-and-rescue? are people still looking for people? is there still hope? >> if you'll will allow me, i will change my position to show where i'm standing. this town used to be only 18,000 before the population, but it is now over 110,000. behind me there are still corpses and unsaved bodies.

the white hats and others are trying to help. you can see the scale of the damage that already people have suffered from lack of shelter, displacement. we have aid workers. we were always hoping for making zero camps for people to have shelter, a dignified place to live in, but now there are a lot of houses that are inhabitable. you see behind me streets being entirely wiped out of the map. crisis is really bad.

unfortunately, we feel again let down and disappointed. i met today i delegation from the united nations, and i have apologized, but this apology does not mean anything. we understand the rules. syria is on the front pages of the news because it is not an international priority, but we have humane feelings. we have a humanitarian and voter obligation. these people will be alone in the winter and the cold. the united nations came to turkey, but they never visited here.

there was a small council to only send a couple dozen people. even in turkey, there was over 80 or 70 countries that sent rescue, but here, we unfortunately work disappointed. >> i want to ask more about how slowly a response has been as well. you spoke about the anger you were seeing from people, especially across the border in syria. i want to understand, is that compounding the trauma people have already had to live through? >> not just compounding the trauma people are living through, it is killing them. the lack of aid, the slowness of aid and lack of aid is killing people. the fact is people screamed the first day, they cried and wept under rubble for their loved

ones who were just outside waiting for their turn at a bulldozer. third day, fourth day, 50 day, 60 day, until you hear the whimpering of your own family and loved ones underneath the rubble died out and you know that they are dead. we have a school for orphans in northern syria supported by american communities, and two of our former students alongside their extended family, they all died, but there relative was outside, waiting for their turn. by the time that happened, online family members were brought out dead. the slowness of aid is killing people. the fact that the united nations -- the united nations believes

that bashar al-assad is the secretary-general. they are giving full sovereignty to him and they are asking his permission to open border points ? he does not control physically in reality. that further legitimizes him, and he waited more than a week. he waited for everyone to die to then say maybe you can use another border crossing for three months. this is a shame on the united nations, a shame on the legacy of western and, frankly, even arab countries that have sent planes to damascus that does not send even a tiny percentage of that aid to regime-held areas, but the places in syria that were the hardest hit have received nothing. it is not just traumatizing them, it is literally murdering them. >> i want to bring you in here. again, we are hearing about the trauma and also about the physical challenges people are

having to live through right now. obviously, there's just not a lot of places for people to sleep, not a lot of food for people to eat. how does this moment, how people deal with the aftermath -- how does that contribute to how people will deal with processing all of what has happened going forward? >> it is hugely disruptive. there's a number of things that will take place, but i think you are describing superbly some of the issues that will be left. think up survivors guilt, for example, which is really, really difficult. why did i survive and my family did not? there's also people trying their best and listening and failing to rescue their loved ones, and they will be left with that memory for the rest of their life and hearing those voices going on and on again and parading themselves for not doing better. that is true.

it is the world that needs to do better, not those individuals, but that does not help when you are an individual who has listened to your child dying under rubble. we need to think about that individual as well. and the lack of aid does this -- one of the things that is most helpful initially in terms of helping people cope with huge events like this, disastrous events like this, and i worked a lot with migrants, people fleeing natural disasters as well as wars, etc., and the thing about trying to get back to some sense of normality as quickly as possible, which you cannot get to normal in this situation, but what you can do is get to living a life or routine so people are getting up looking after their kids.

you want that process to start as soon as possible, schools to be up and running as soon as possible. there might be makeshift tents to start with, but if you have not got that basic level of infrastructure to begin that basic transition for the survivors to get back to life and get some sense of moving beyond the immediate threat into some sense of safety, that's a real problem further down the line for those people in terms of their capacity to be resilient. the word resilient was used earlier on, and yes, there's a lot of resilience going on. but that will break unless we get in there and provide these basic resources to people so that they can begin to process. >> i'm seeing so much resilience

from the community there, so many people who have lost their own family members like yourselves, and you are trying to help other people in your community. let me ask you a personal question, if that's all right. i'm curious about what you personally would like to see. we have talked about infrastructure, schools, shelter, all of that, but in terms of your own support, in terms of feeling like you are being listened to, feeling like your family is going to be supported in the future, what are you looking for? what would you like? >> the international community has deserted the syrian people for years. the last thing they needed was the earthquake that destroyed

it, and now we are over consumed. the need is really big. people need a chance to have a decent shelter. houses or prefabricated containers or any kind of decent, dignified shelter, not these tents that does not protect anyone in heat of summer or cold of winter. at the same time, people need to have some normalization of life. we speak about resilience. people, their property, the markets, the economy and everything is really shaking. unfortunately, we are habituated , the abnormal is becoming

normal. this must stop. the international community and countries and all active -- all actors and players should be accountable. there are hundreds of thousands of people across a small 40 by 60 kilometer development. above 70% of the population, so some of them we have met through our humanitarian work. they are being displaced. this is not the life that syrians deserve. we feel like we are always being deserted and the aid is being pulled aside. the united nations and others who are reclusive, go to the right place of the right people and provide the help.

even though they are providing thousands of 10ths -- tents, it is not a durable solution. it is not long term. this is not what we need. we need more permanent solution. >> let me ask about that. i know you have been dealing with some of this as well. >> yeah, no, i just wanted to jump in as you were speaking and say first of all, he is absolutely right. we need a lot of help right now, but to recover from this, it's going to be months if not years. the fact that the united nations remains beholden to the assad regime, despite the fact that according to legal experts, we don't need security counsel resolutions to have that cross-border aid from the north. either there is a mechanism outside the united nations that utilizes the multiple border crossings that are wide open

from the northeast hardest hit areas or the united nations settled the cross-border question today and indefinitely, but these six months, one border or three months one border thing that we are begging from the assad regime, not only are they coming as concessions to the assad regime, it is legitimizing the war criminal that is displacing people to the north of us. the numbers of deaths are way lower because people just as it's hard to figure out the numbers of deaths, which are way lower because people are from all over the place. the world needs to show up. the fact that the only cars going into syria are ambulances of dead people is unacceptable. >> i want to also discuss what is going on on the other cited the border. this is a profoundly traumatizing event for millions of people on both sides of the

border. i wonder if the social aspect of this is being discussed because lots of people will be discussing a huge amount of trauma for many years to come. is that being discussed? are those provisions being made in terms of trying to help people right now and going forward? >> it really looks like the aftermath of a major warzone. you see in same disruption -- insane disruption. sometimes there will be clocks on the wall, and they are still stuck at, like, four: 20 a.m., whenever the clock stopped working after the whole house fell down. i went into some of the tents here with these families, and people that work rich in the

morning became poor and homeless in a matter of minutes, and that is just across the board. the efforts have been focused on getting them in tents, providing aid, clearing roads, but i had not seen some of that support right away. i hope that happens with the aid of the international community that needs to come and support turkey as it is trying to help its own people that have gone through a disastrous catastrophe and the syrians across the border and the new refugees that have serious, but they need is so great. the social support that people desperately need, i have not seen that. i see a lot of people in that

numb state as well. every once in a while, some people will break down as they are describing the problem. >> indeed, and so many are gesturing to get by day to day as we were hearing. i'm afraid we will have to leave under discussion there for now and i will let you all get back to the very important work that you are doing. i cannot thank you enough for joining us, and i really want to wish you all the best for all the work you are doing and also with your families. again, we are very sorry for your loss, and you have all of our thoughts and best wishes. thank you, too, for watching. you can see this program again any time visiting our website, and for further discussion, do go to our facebook page. remember, you can also join the conversation on twitter.

bye for now. ♪

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