Twin earthquakes destroy village in Türkiye’s Kahramanmaras province

By Muhammed Enes Calli

KAHRAMANMARAS, Türkiye (AA) - The massive twin earthquakes that struck southern Türkiye on Feb. 6 caused great destruction in an area of Kahramanmaras province.

Ordekdede village in Pazarcik district is one of the epicenters of the earthquakes.

Nearly all of the single-story houses there were destroyed, while fault fractures stretch for kilometers close to the village.

Speaking to Anadolu, Kemal Guven, the local headman of Ordekdede said there were 140 households in the village before the disaster and there are no structurally sound homes left in the village now.

Guven was lucky, as he was in Gaziantep at the time of the earthquakes.

After arriving the village, he and his neighbors pulled his relatives out of the rubble.

He added that they are trying to rebuild the village, which is the largest area in the region close to the epicenter of the earthquake.

"There are only two or three houses left standing, while all the others were destroyed. The earthquake left 34 people dead and 25 others injured," he said.

At least 41,156 people were killed and 105,505 injured by the two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, officials said Monday in the latest figures from the natural disaster.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa and Elazig.