Ali Kafadenk, 34, poses in entrance of the rubble of his destroyed condo in Islahiye, Turkey. He and his spouse Merve, 27, survived the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb 6.

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Ali Kafadenk, 34, poses in entrance of the rubble of his destroyed condo in Islahiye, Turkey. He and his spouse Merve, 27, survived the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb 6.

Daniel Estrin/NPR

ISLAHIYE, Turkey — Ali and Merve Kafadenk had been sleeping in mattress when their six-story condo constructing began to shake.

It was a little bit after 4 a.m. on Feb. 6. Merve poked Ali and woke him up. There’s an earthquake, she mentioned. It’s going to cross, he replied.

Then, two reverse bed room partitions caved in, forming a concrete tent over their mattress. It was so low they could not sit up.

“We had been caught below the partitions … with a form of an upside-down V. That is what protected us,” Ali Kafadenk says.

The catastrophic earthquake has killed greater than 43,000 individuals in Turkey and Syria, The Related Press reported late Friday. The Kafadenks’ city of Islahiye was hard-hit. Out of the handfuls who lived in his 18-unit condo constructing, solely two others escaped alive, he says.

Here is what their constructing regarded like earlier than the quake:

How some stayed alive below the rubble

A tipped wall making a small cavity is a technique a number of fortunate individuals managed to remain alive below the rubble after the large earthquake and aftershocks.

Some discovered themselves, by probability, trapped beneath a wall that fell over onto a mattress or one other object, making a small triangle that protected them.

“They’ve an area to stay,” says Osman Turk, a response specialist on Turkey’s Nationwide Medical Rescue Crew coordinating triage models that assist survivors pulled out of the rubble.

Osman Turk is an emergency response specialist from Turkey’s Nationwide Medical Rescue Crew. He has been coordinating the groups giving first help to earthquake survivors faraway from the rubble.

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Osman Turk is an emergency response specialist from Turkey’s Nationwide Medical Rescue Crew. He has been coordinating the groups giving first help to earthquake survivors faraway from the rubble.

Daniel Estrin/NPR

In a single case, he says, a wall fell onto a fridge, giving a 7-year-old woman a protecting house — and meals — to outlive for 4 days earlier than she was rescued.

For individuals who survived for days below the rubble, the chilly climate additionally helped, medics say, as a result of survivors did not sweat a lot, delaying dehydration.

They thought they might die

Ali Kafadenk, 34, and his spouse Merve, 27, had been solely trapped below the rubble for about an hour and a half, however thought they had been going to die.

“That was the one choice, we thought,” Ali Kafadenk says. “Like, any minute, there’s going to be one thing that is going to come back crashing down on our heads and that is going to be the top.”

He coated his spouse with the bedcovers, and threw himself over her to guard her. They cried collectively, and prayed collectively. “We had been saying to one another that we got here from God. We’ll return to God,” he says.

A supernatural sound

He heard his constructing sink and the earth transfer. It was a sound he had by no means heard earlier than in his life: robust and loud, like low thunder.

“It feels prefer it’s a supernatural sound,” he says. “Just like the sound that we hear in sci-fi motion pictures.”

The constructing shifted and crumbled. The three flooring above their condo fell into the road.

Then by some means a gap shaped within the wall. It was too dusty to see something, however he felt it: snowy, chilly air. That’s when he heard his neighbors’ screams: My child’s caught right here. My leg is caught there. My mother’s below right here. My dad’s over there.

Ali Kafadenk (left) and his brother Abdullah have a look at the rubble of Ali’s condo constructing in Islahiye, Turkey. The constructing was decreased to rubble within the Feb. 6 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.

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Daniel Estrin

Ali Kafadenk (left) and his brother Abdullah have a look at the rubble of Ali’s condo constructing in Islahiye, Turkey. The constructing was decreased to rubble within the Feb. 6 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria.

Daniel Estrin

So Ali and Merve Kafadenk additionally shouted, and somebody got here to drag them out. Ali was barefoot, and one other man gave him a pair of sneakers.

“He mentioned, ‘I’ve seven kids who’re caught below the rubble over there. I simply heard you, so I attempted that will help you. So I got here for you. However now I must go and take care of my kids,'” Ali recollects.

His dwelling in Islahiye was about half a mile from the estimated fault line, as mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Visiting the rubble for the primary time

9 days after the quake, Kafadenk is again within the catastrophe zone along with his brother to retrieve the registration papers from his buried automobile for an insurance coverage declare. It is the primary time he is returned to the ruins of his dwelling.

“Seeing it, it seems like I am residing via all of it once more. I am feeling concern, unhappiness and loss,” he says.

Merve teaches kindergarten, and he teaches first via fourth grade. They’ve tried calling their colleagues however cannot attain them. He thinks they’ve died.

One of many few issues he may get well from the constructing had been letters of appreciation from his college students. He wonders what number of of them survived.

Excellent news comes just a few days later: After years of attempting, he lastly acquired accepted to show in a faculty that pays about triple the wage he used to make.

“I can’t name this greater than a miracle,” says his brother, Abdullah Kafadenk.

Ali and Merve Kafadenk’s mangled mattress body sits atop the rubble of their destroyed condo in Islahiye, Turkey. When the earthquake hit Feb. 6, the bed room partitions caved in, forming a concrete tent over their mattress and defending them.

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Ali and Merve Kafadenk’s mangled mattress body sits atop the rubble of their destroyed condo in Islahiye, Turkey. When the earthquake hit Feb. 6, the bed room partitions caved in, forming a concrete tent over their mattress and defending them.

Daniel Estrin/NPR