U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Mark Parris discusses mounting health risks in the country's hardest-hit areas and the continued need for foreign aid.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, we update the post- earthquake situation in Turkey. We start with two reports from Independent television news, the first from correspondent John Irvine.

JOHN IRVINE: An image of hope is on the front of Turkish papers today. From his hospital bed, Ismail Cimen could see himself stare back. This is a little boy for whom funeral arrangements had been made. When we arrived at hospital last night, he told doctors, "I've been buried alive." He had cried out for help, but none came. Yesterday, as his life ebbed away, rescuers found Ismail Cimen. He had been lost to the world for six days. Now only distant relatives can comfort the child. His mother lies injured in the same hospital, his father is dead, so are three of his sisters. The boy is sedated. Tranquilizers limit the disturbing flashbacks.

GABY RADO: Despite the desperate hopes of thousands that some miracle may still deliver their trapped relatives alive, the clearing and the bulldozing rubble has now fully got under way. The rescue operation has been winding down; British, German, and Israeli teams all leaving Turkey in the past 48 hours. Local people have been taking remarkable risks in trying to salvage belongings. It's a sign both of their plight, and of the lack of official safety supervision, which has marred the earthquake catastrophe in the past week.

Beyond anyone's control, however, has been the savage weather. As if they haven't suffered enough from the quakes, the population in the coastal areas of Northwest Turkey are having to contend with torrential rain storms. It's not only making survivors' lives more miserable, but it's hindering relief work, and is increasing the danger of waterborne diseases. Medical teams are worried about the risks to children in particular. Seven days into the tragedy, and large numbers of tents have now arrived in the disaster area, though not nearly enough for the 200,000 people thought to have been made homeless. When autumn and harsh weather arrives, though, canvas won't be sufficient. And relief agencies are having to plan for building shelters able to withstand earthquakes and the cold.

The Turkish government is appealing to the outside word for blankets, torches, disinfectants, and various vaccines to fight infections. As their shock wears off, the people's anger is starting to show. Legal action was today launched by 300 homeless people to establish negligence by builders of houses which collapsed. A TV station, which has been criticizing the government for its lax response to the disaster, has been shut down for being too provocative. The death toll now stands at 18,000, and Turkey has asked the U.N. for 45,000 body bags.

MARGARET WARNER: For more, we turn to the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Mark Parris. I spoke with him earlier today from Ankara.

MARGARET WARNER: Welcome, Mr. Ambassador. Thanks for being with us.

What is the Turkish government's priority now, a week after this earthquake?

MARK PARRIS, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey: Well, obviously, it's shifting. The priority in the days immediately after the quake was to stabilize and to provide immediate medical attention to those in greatest need. As they worked their way through that problem, their focus has shifted to meeting the longer-term needs of the survivors, providing shelter, ensuring that they have adequate drinking water, restoring communications, electricity, those kinds of things. And that's what they're beginning to focus on at this point.

MARGARET WARNER: How much progress is the government making on restoring say basic water and sanitation or beginning to cope with the housing problem?

MARK PARRIS: Well, these are not problems that lend themselves to quick fixes. Infrastructure has just been shattered by the quake. I was in Istanbul when it occurred and drove back to Ankara for a meeting that I had to attend in the early hours immediately afterwards. Roads were closed, there was no communication, and everything that they found out since has reinforced the reality that the damage is very severe, very extensive, and that it will take some time to get permanent infrastructure back in shape.

The government here has established a crisis center, which has been working closely with the United Nations, as well as with international missions here, including our own, to try to begin to get the material, the expertise necessary to meet housing, to meet sanitation, to meet water needs. And that process is going forward with increasing effectiveness and coherence as we move through it. We will be, as the United States, bringing in tents, for example, during the course of this week. We are in the process of bringing portable water -- potable water purification plants, as well as a ship capable of supplying the same kinds of services which should be on station by the end of this week and supplying somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 gallons of potable water a day. Others are making complementary efforts.

Housing is going to be the biggest problem because somewhere over 60,000 homes were destroyed. There are 200,000 people currently without housing; they are living in makeshift arrangements with various degrees of sophistication. So the government has placed a very high priority on bringing in tenting and on beginning to build prefabricated units which can house these people until something more permanent can be established.

MARGARET WARNER: We --

MARK PARRIS: I should add that over the past 24 hours -- I'm sorry --

MARGARET WARNER: No, go right ahead. I was going to just ask you about the U.S. effort. We understand some Navy ships have arrived. And what is really the focus of the U.S. effort at this point?

MARK PARRIS: Well, yesterday, the U.S.S. Kearsarge along with two other ships associated with the Marine exhibitionary unit arrived in the Gulf of Izmit in the vicinity of the quake. This flotilla brings an enormous capacity to help the system, the rescue effort. They have a large number of helicopters, including those with a substantial lift capability. They have landing craft that can move goods and personnel to sites that are currently inaccessible by sea because of damage to docking and other facilities. They have a large medical capability, which is not so much an issue with regard to acute injuries as it is being able to deal with the outbreak of diseases, that sort of thing, in the days ahead.

The Kearsarge and its commanders have spent the day talking to senior Turkish military interlocutors about how they can best sort out the assets that they bring, how they can best be deployed to move equipment, to move tents, to move water purification equipment, to assist the efforts that the Turks themselves are making in these areas. They've established liaison offices ashore in a number of locations. They have done site surveys of a number of airfields that they would be operating from. And they're beginning to develop a list of specific tasks that they would be doing in days ahead, like setting up water plants, like setting up tent facilities, like establishing sanitation facilities to be used in connection with these.

MARGARET WARNER: Is it the Turkish military that's doing the coordination? I was wondering how all this international assistance is coming in. Who is doing the coordination? How do people know where they're needed, what's needed?

MARK PARRIS: Well, to some extent this is a mirror image of our own effort; that is, there is a civilian component and there is a military component, and both obviously are important. The Turkish military component, I think, was initially suffering from the fact that their largest military asset in the region, the Golcuk Naval Base, which normally would have responsibility for taking charge of these kinds of operations, was hit very hard, among the hardest hit locations during the quake. And it's taken them some time to sort through that and to develop a plan and put it into action.

But we see every day evidence that they're moving through that and are working with increasing effectiveness, including with our own military throughout the course of today and the past several days. On the civilian side we have established good working liaison relationships with Turkish health and other facilities on the scene. Our consulate general in Istanbul has a permanent presence in the area hit by the quake.

People have been working very hard in some cases going without sleep or sleeping in cars on the scene to assist with that effort. And obviously you don't set up this kind of mechanism in a day. But over the course of the past week there's been real progress, both on the civilian and on the military side in terms of communication, coordination, and I think the effectiveness of the assistance that's being delivered. I would take the opportunity to emphasize, in fact, that from the very opening hours of this quake in terms of getting American personnel and equipment and expertise here, we've had superb coordination and cooperation from Turkish authorities.

We had a team from Fairfax County, Virginia, specializing in emergency rescue here within 36 hours on the job, on a site working. We had an emergency surgical team from the Navy in position taking care of cases within 48 hours. That requires a lot of work on the Turkish side to get visas, clearances, transportation, et cetera, and this was right after the quake took place.

MARGARET WARNER: There has been - as I know you know -- both there and we read about it here -- a lot of criticism, nonetheless, of the government for not being prepared for this in any way and for lack of coordination. What do you think is going to be the mid- and long-term political impact of this quake and its aftermath on Turkey's system, on Turkey?

MARK PARRIS: Well, I think that you're dealing with something which is fairly natural. There are a lot of people without homes, without electricity, without ability to communicate, looking for potable water, I'm sure, as to what the situation is going to be. And naturally, they are frustrated; they are angry; they want to know when this situation is going to stop. That's a perfectly human reaction, and it's one that I think you often see in these kinds of circumstances.

I remember after Hurricane Michael in Florida a few years ago there were many of the same kinds of views expressed. I think, the fact of the matter is if you see the devastation on the spot that has been wrought by this quake, and you -- you appreciate that this area was essentially cut off entirely from any communication, surface, phone, or any other, for 36 hours after the quake took place, it's hard to suggest that any government would have been able in a flawless manner to meet all of the needs required as efficiently anyone would like.

This was a major catastrophe. The death toll will eventually place this probably in running for the worst earthquake in the history of Europe in this century. So, while there is anger, I think that there is also an awareness that the magnitude of this task would have been a difficult one for any government, however well prepared, to deal with. I think one must also understand that this is a government that has been in office only since June. It was a government that established over the course of the summer a very positive reputation here and internationally for the very decisive measures that it had begun to take, moving economic reforms, democratization reforms, a very impressive, necessary agenda through the Turkish parliament to the point The New York Times a week and a half ago was describing the government as the most successful Turkish government in a decade.

The causes of the enormous destruction to the extent that they're a function of poor construction, of inadequate inspections. These are problems that have been going on here for years, if not decades, so I think, as a practical matter, it will be difficult to put the blame for the extent of the damage itself on the government, which has moved with increasing effectiveness over the past several days to get a grip on the problem and to move ahead.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, thank you very much, Ambassador Parris. Thank you for being with us.

MARK PARRIS: It's a pleasure. Thank you.