"Beat & Release": 102 Hours Later, Family Rescued From Rubble in Iskenderun - "5 days felt like 5 years"

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 12 February 2023)

For 102 hours (!) nurse Helin Oktan (25) and her family hugged each 

other underneath the earthquake rubble of their home in Çay village in 

Hatay's Iskenderun district and were rescued.  Helin hanım is currently 

in a hospital in good condition.  She related that "we called out 

continuously for 48 hours, hoping someone would hear us.  But as time 

passed our hopes faded.  Then we heard someone say 'can anyone hear 

me?' and we knew we would be saved.  We came back from the precipice 

of death."

After 5 days under the rubble, rescuers reached Helin hanım, her 

parents Kadri and Yasemin, her sisters Zilan and Dilan and her brother

Arda and saved them all.   Helin hanım told Hürriyet that "we were 

sleeping and I felt a rocking. Waking up, I realized that there had been

an earthquake.  I called out to my family and we all gathered in one 

place. Then the ceiling came crashing down on us with a big bang.

We thought we'd be saved but time passed without rescue. In the end

5 days passed like 5 years.  We hugged each other during those 5 days

and this carried us through."

The rescuers at Helin hanım's home, the Arzu Apartımanı, came from 

Greece, Japan, Hungary and Uzbekistan, as well as from Turkish search 

and rescue units AFAD, Gendarmerie, security guards, AKÜT, İHH, 

and firefighters from various municipalities. 

Iskenderun is at the head of the gulf above Hatay on the map.