In the Zone: Responding to the Turkish Earthquakes

The haunting images of Turkish towns and cities devastated by the February earthquakes will live long in all our minds.  Very few of us, though, had to witness these shocking scenes first hand and be prepared to do whatever it takes to help the affected population.

For RE:ACT Responders like Sarah McBride, heading into a disaster zone whilst those that could were travelling the other way as fast as they could, is all in a day’s work.

Mother-of-three Sarah was a member of our first team to be deployed to the Kahramanmaras region just days after the earthquakes struck.

“As we drove closer to Hatay – a province in Southern Türkiye that borders Syria – the true extent of devastation was clear.  Vast urban areas had been reduced to rubble where days before people’s homes and livelihoods existed.  For most of us this was our first time in an earthquake zone and the general mood was sombre,” explains Sarah who is now safely back home with her family in Southampton.

For the Responders, there was very little time to acclimatise because local people needed all the help they could get.

During the two-week assignment RE:ACT Response Teams were deployed on a variety of tasks.

“Whilst search and rescue teams continued to look for people trapped under the rubble, we were asked to help with other vital jobs such as aid delivery, clothing distribution, and needs assessments,” says Sarah.

“We carried out the assessments, or ‘observations’, by visiting all 15 districts within Hatay.  There we met local people to find out what their immediate needs were, be that food, water, shelter, medicine, etcetera.  Then we fed the information back to the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team who could then ensure the correct type of aid was delivered.”

Sarah says the Responders also worked alongside the Turkish Red Crescent and Turkish Scouting organisations.

“We helped them to sort and pack mountains of donated clothes which were then distributed to people throughout the earthquake zone.  We also worked with a Turkish NGO called Solidarity, Respect, and Protect to deliver aid directly to those in need, including the areas by the Türkiye-Syria border.”

Not surprisingly, considering she served for 23 years in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corp (QARANC) as a Senior Military Nurse (Emergency Specialist), Sarah’s role in Türkiye was Response Team Medic!

“As well as helping out with the tasks I’ve mentioned already, my RE:ACT job was to provide first line care for everyone’s medical needs. Thankfully, there were only minor ailments and injuries.”

As you would imagine, with hundreds of thousands homeless, and homes and buildings destroyed, living conditions for the team were basic.

“We were sleeping on concrete slabs inside tents held down with breeze blocks.  The outside temperature was below freezing at night, the facilities were fairly grim, and we were largely eating rehydrated ration packs,” Sarah continues.

She adds: “Whilst conditions eventually became slightly more comfortable, we still remained in an earthquake zone and were reminded of this by the tremors we felt on a daily basis.  Many of our team had never experienced working in an earthquake zone let alone experienced an actual quake.”

“All that changed on February 20^th.  A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit the province of Hatay, the area we were deployed in.  It was extremely frightening, but thankfully we only suffered a few minor injuries.  After a swift accounting for all Responders, a small team, including a Response Team Medic, set off to check on the welfare of others in the vicinity.”

In such stressful situations, Sarah says it is vital for the team of diverse individuals to get on well together.

“RE:ACT obviously draws from a wide array of individuals.  My Response Team consisted of a firefighter, a former Special Branch officer, an emergency planning officer and myself, a nurse.  We started off as a group of strangers with a common desire to help those in need, by the time we arrived in-country we were a well-bonded team ready to support those following the earthquakes, especially the most vulnerable and hardest to reach,” continues Sarah.

“We were a good team. No niggles and very respectful of each other.  We had a laugh but of course only when it was appropriate.  There were the usual jokes as we were all a bit stinky (despite wet wipe washes), so there was lots of toilet humour.  But we were professional throughout though, and there were absolutely no issues being a female in a team of blokes.”

Though Sarah has a huge amount of experience after operational army deployments in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sierra Leone, she is still grateful for the thorough training all Responders get after volunteering for RE:ACT.

“The International Responders Course really tests your mental and physical resilience.  The mission may be conducted in Chilmark, but the scenarios are very real, and it really gives you the information you need to cope with anything that comes your way.  In my case, I completed the course in January and only two weeks later I was flying out on my first humanitarian deployment,” she points out.

So how did she find her first big operational response with RE:ACT?

“Despite being a relatively short deployment of just over two weeks, the support we gave to the host nation was absolutely worthwhile.  It was a privilege to have been there and a most humbling experience.”

She adds: “Seeing my family, my husband Phil and three children, Ellie, who’s four, six-year-old Alfie, and Jack, who’s 20, when I got home was both emotional and amazing.  They have been incredibly supportive and continue to enable me to deploy at relative short notice knowing that our sacrifice is for the benefit of those who are in greater need.”