DEADLY FORCE

	August 19, 1999
	ITN reports on the continued search for survivors in Turkey after Monday’s devastating earthquake.

ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Turkey's earthquake death toll continues to rise. Julian Manyon of Independent Television News has this report from Adapazari, one of the hardest-hit towns. JULIAN MANYON: Amid the thousands of deaths, at least a few precious lives are being saved. Pulled from a hole underneath the rubble, a six-year-old boy. Gently he was passed from hand to hand by the rescue team. His name is Emil Yazli and he was unhurt. But his parents are known to have died and his two brothers are believed to be still trapped in the ruins. From another smashed building another even younger boy-- perhaps two or three years old-- was also pulled out alive, and as onlookers applauded, the child somehow had the strength to join in. While countless families have lost members, there have been miraculous reunions as well. As this little girl was being examined after her rescue, her mother was also saved. Exhausted and seemingly in shock, she found comfort kissing her child's feet. But in many place, hope is disappearing fast amid the sweltering hit. Here in the town of Adapazari, the worst hit in the earthquake zone, rescuers have now abandoned their attempts to save the young man whose voice was heard from this pile of masonry last night. Instead they are now simply searching for the bodies that lie beneath the rubble. In the shattered central street, machinery that was being used to try to dig the victims out is now tearing down buildings that could collapse at any moment. As more bodies are recovered, the town's mayor says that as many as 5,000 may still be hidden in the rubble. Here, as in the rest of the earthquake area, the authorities are worried by the health risks created by the large numbers of corpses, and the prime minister has called for them to be buried as soon as possible. People here are still trying to come to terms with the sheer scale of this disaster. In the crisis center tent, the town deputy governor does his best to encourage his team, but speaking to me, he could not hide his dismay. DEPUTY GOVERNOR: (speaking through interpreter) Adapazari has suffered terrible, unimaginable damage. It has been virtually wiped off the map. JULIAN MANYON: With at least 60 percent of the town's buildings destroyed or damaged, it is difficult to imagine how Adapazari can ever recover, though people are trying to salvage whatever pathetic belongings have survived. A young civil engineer told me that poor construction standards have magnified the effects of the earthquake. CIVIL ENGINEER: I feel awful, but this is mistake of the project managers and project makers and the constructors. JULIAN MANYON: As it gradually becomes clear just how much of this part of Turkey has been destroyed, estimates of the economic cost are rising. The earthquake zone normally generates about 35 percent of the country's wealth. Now industries are in ruins, and many of the work force are dead. At Izmit, the oil refinery which produces a third of Turkey's petrol is still burning fiercely. The bill for all this will be massive, tens of billions of pounds, but it is the damage in the survivors' minds, the loss of loved ones and the destruction of their hopes that will be hardest to repair.