ANTAKYA, Turkey — They bedded down anyplace they may: on lightless avenue corners, in grassy little parks, subsequent to an elementary faculty, on a hillside down from one of many world’s earliest Christian church buildings.

Throughout Antakya, the traditional capital of Hatay Province, the area hit hardest by the worst earthquake in Turkey in almost a century, 1000’s have been struggling to make sense of a cataclysm that had turned their lives inside out and left many with no house, no possessions, no reminiscences and, for some, no future right here.

Many have been grappling with getting via one other evening. Vehicles have been chilly to sleep in and too small to carry most households. However they might be hotter than tents, which have been only a skinny layer masking the full devastation of the folks inside.

Both was nonetheless preferable to a tarp, stretched over a bus shelter or held up by poles. Regardless of how a lot wooden and trash the Antakyans burned to maintain their households heat, it was nonetheless freezing chilly.

“No electrical energy, no water, no bathroom,” stated Saba Yigit, 52, a nanny, giving particular emphasis to the final merchandise.

Thursday was the third day in a row she had woken up, freezing, within the coated vegetable market the place she and her household had taken shelter after Monday’s early morning quake broken their house close to the Mediterranean. “It’s horrible.”

A number of the market’s blue steel stands had been claimed as makeshift beds. Others have been nonetheless heaped with parsley, cabbage, scallions and cauliflower, now wilting. The ashes of Ms. Yigit’s little fireplace cradled a few charred peppers and a carrot, the one cooking her household was capable of do on this metropolis of edible marvels, the place Mediterranean, Arab and Anatolian cuisines had blended for hundreds of years.

She stated the greens had come from support teams — for most individuals, the one meals out there in Antakya — not from the bounty round her. Sometime, she stated, with extra wishful considering than realism, its homeowners may nonetheless need to promote the produce.

On Thursday, because the United Nations’ first support convoy rolled into opposition-controlled Syria, the demise toll in Turkey exceeded the 17,600 mark, making it the deadliest temblor there in additional than 80 years. With the three,377 fatalities up to now in Syria, the variety of lifeless had surpassed 21,000.

Thursday would even be the fourth evening most individuals within the crumpled husk that had been Antakya spent sleeping exterior. Many had misplaced their houses within the earthquake, whereas others feared the slightest aftershock may ship the remaining homes and residences heaving down, too. They have been too scared to go inside to make use of the few bogs that have been working.

“Whereas we await tents, we’ll die right here in our chairs,” stated Sabriye Karaoglan, 70, who sat in a blue camp chair on a mountainside promenade overlooking town, wrapped in a too-thin blanket.

Subsequent to her was a cage of parakeets rescued from her household’s house. On the street in entrance was the automotive members of the family have been taking turns sleeping in at evening. As soon as upon a time, they used to drive it to the seaside when it was good out, she stated, taking the identical blue chairs alongside for picnics.

Based in 300 B.C. by a former basic for Alexander the Nice, Antakya has been round lengthy sufficient to have been destroyed and rebuilt a number of occasions. The Greeks, Romans and Byzantines referred to as it Antioch, and it was a buying and selling middle so highly effective that it was as soon as the Roman Empire’s third-largest metropolis.

The fashionable metropolis was constructed atop layers and layers of the ruins of long-gone civilizations. Historical past nonetheless pokes via in lots of locations: an early Christian church based in a cave by Sts. Peter and Paul; historic stone mosques within the oldest a part of city; a stretch of positive Byzantine mosaics uncovered within the building of a resort.

However the lengthy view held no consolation for many who received calls each few hours telling them that one other beloved one had died, an outline that utilized to most individuals in Antakya this week. And by Thursday, after they walked the streets, they not heard the calls of individuals trapped beneath the rubble.

“No extra Antakya,” stated Kazim Kuseyri, 41, the proprietor of Antakya’s most venerable resort, the Savon, who was sleeping in a automotive within the resort’s courtyard together with about 25 family, employees members and their family and pals.

“I misplaced my pals; I misplaced the buildings the place I ate and drank with my pals. I misplaced all my reminiscences. I don’t have any purpose to reside in Hatay anymore. As a result of there’s nothing.”

Nobody was exempted from the catastrophe, besides maybe the canine nonetheless happening with their lives. In some neighborhoods, each constructing was cracked or in ruins. Even the timber bore the scars: Folks have been chopping their branches to burn.

The oldest a part of town, the place historic mosques, church buildings, Alawite chapels and a synagogue all stood inside a couple of blocks of each other, was nearly completely destroyed. Its existence had been a testomony, residents stated, to Antakya’s many coexisting religions, although for many years previously century sectarian violence typically plagued town and most Jews had lengthy since left.

A metropolis of greater than 200,000, Antakya has additionally had its tolerance examined over the previous decade with the arrival of 1000’s of Syrian refugees.

Alongside Independence Highway, the world’s first lighted avenue, buyers, strollers and vacationers had bustled out and in of a kebab restaurant, a spice retailer, a sweets store, a tailor, a pharmacy, a hair dresser and extra, all now cracked or destroyed.

“It hurts to see Independence Highway like this,” stated Ahmet Gunes, 34, a Turkish Kurd who typically got here to Antakya from his city, Sanliurfa, to promote livestock. “It’s an ideal place. I want this had occurred to my hometown as a substitute.”

Throughout the road from the elegant Ottoman-era Liwan Lodge, three physique luggage lay on the sidewalk. The labels stated one held a 19-year-old Syrian, one other a 10-year-old Turk.

A Syrian man in socks and sandals stumbled up, clutching an inventory of six names written on a torn piece of cardboard. They have been family of his, amongst them his dad and mom.

That they had all died, he stated. He staggered off, masking his face.

Together with a buddy, Isa Solmaz, 51, who grew up within the neighborhood earlier than transferring to Istanbul for work, was guarding an artist’s store from looters. His brother had saved their mom from the rubble of her house, however the whole lot else they’d generally known as youngsters — the whole lot else their dad and mom, and their dad and mom’ dad and mom earlier than them, had been pleased with — was gone.

The odor of a savory flatbread popping out of the oven within the bakery down the road used to ship them operating downstairs to purchase a serving to. An older neighbor who has since died used to take them in after they ran away from their mom’s scoldings.

“You sleep, you get up and you then don’t bear in mind your childhood anymore,” Mr. Solmaz stated, predicting that the majority Antakyans would go away town. “It’s a lack of reminiscence. It’s not a metropolis that’s gone right here. It’s a complete historical past; it’s a civilization.”

All evening, the sounds of calamity broke the sleep of the displaced. Sirens wailed nonstop. Each couple of minutes, helicopters carrying support chopped the air overhead.

With retailers, kitchens and eating places closed or destroyed, the one meals got here within the type of humanitarian support, typically lentils with plain pasta, canned tuna or biscuits from a package deal.

One other drawback was holding in contact with family and pals with out a lot electrical energy or cell service. Energy retailers had disappeared together with houses and workplaces, and dozens of individuals huddled across the few cell electrical energy vans, plugging their cellphones into the ability strips that snaked out in each route.

Counting on vehicles for energy was difficult, as gas is scarce in Hatay Province and the quantity of fuel persons are allowed to purchase is restricted.

Most of all, everybody was chilly.

Although support teams had distributed some blankets and heat clothes, folks sleeping within the open needed to burn something they may discover to heat up. Cell vans and volunteers supplied sizzling tea and lentil soup in some locations, and the solar introduced some aid to freezing fingers. However when evening fell, the wrestle for heat started once more.

A couple of days in the past, Antakyans wouldn’t have believed they may reside like this, or that they might ever name one other place house. A couple of days in, they discovered themselves planning to depart.

“Hatay is over,” stated Ibrahim Kaya, 55, who was additionally sheltering within the vegetable market with family.

All they’d managed to save lots of from their house was a bag of borek, a form of cheese pastry. When a customer arrived, nevertheless, residing on charity didn’t stop them from providing hospitality. They poured tea and supplied the pastry; they smiled, briefly, via tears.