GALLERIES: A country lies shattered The story of a rescue VIDEO CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports the Turkish government has been unable to pay much attention to this area because of the scope of damage elsewhere (Aug. 23) Windows Media 28K 80K INTERACTIVE: Chronology of major earthquakes over the last 20 years MESSAGE BOARDS: Turkey Quake RELATED AUDIO Click here to listen to reactions to the earthquake in Turkey

August 24, 1999
Web posted at: 5:16 a.m. EDT (0916 GMT)

In this story: Soldier quarantined with typhoid Assessing impact of trauma One boy saved Search resumes for family Minister warns of acid rain RELATED STORIES, SITES

ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) -- Turkish officials on Tuesday were calling it "the disaster of the century," as they struggle to bury the nation's earthquake dead, amid a shortage of tools for dealing with tragedy on a colossal scale.

Government officials broadcast appeals for bulldozers, body bags and tents, as they attempted to clear away the rubble from last week's 7.4-magnitude earthquake, which left more than 14,000 people dead and 200,000 homeless.

As many international rescue teams began to depart, amid dwindling hope of finding more survivors beneath the rubble, health specialists turned their attention to the concern over disease.

Israeli doctors quarantined a 21-year-old Turkish soldier suffering from typhoid fever, an acute infection spread by contaminated food and water, as medical officials confronted ongoing medical emergencies, and a fear of spreading disease.

Many quake victims are suffering from severe dehydration that can lead to fatal complications. Many people who are ill need antibiotics.

Some health workers warn that typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery could spread in the squalid encampments used by quake survivors.

"This is one of the epidemic diseases," said Dr. Aharon Finestone, a member of the Israeli medical team in Adapazari, 60 miles southeast of Istanbul.

A medical emergency could put even more pressure on the beleagured Turkish government.

Many Turkish people's unahppiness with government disaster management efforts has been evident in recent days. Grieving bystanders shout at passing officials, and plead for help.

Throughout the quake-torn region, there were signs of human loss. One man told CNN's Walter Rodgers that when the earthquake occurred, "It sounded like a bomb. I grabbed my wife's hand and held it till I felt the life drain out of her."

A few hours later, he was rescued. His wife lay in the ruins of their home.

Medical teams are just beginning to assess the impact of the week's emotional terrors on Turkish children. Some are so frightened to be inside buildings -- as are many adults -- that they want to live outside.

There are still miraculous moments.

Rescuers pulled a young boy alive from the rubble of an apartment building on Monday, nearly a week after the walls of his home collapsed on top of him in one of the most devastating earthquakes to strike Turkey this century.

But with rescues increasingly few and far between and many survivors left destitute in tent cities, residents in Turkey's quake zone expressed their anger at the Turkish government.

Sunday night, Turkish search crews heard a 3-year-old boy buried in the ruins of a building in Cinarcik, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Istanbul. They then called in an Israeli team, which dug the boy free early Monday.

The boy, whose father and three sisters were killed in the quake, spent more than six days alone in a dark nook under a collapsed balcony. "A miracle of God," said the boy's uncle.

Doctors expect the young boy to make a full recovery.

"The child got very thin, but with no harm on his bones, blood, nothing at all," said Noam Amit, a member of the rescue team.

Another earthquake survivor, a middle-aged Israeli woman, was also reported in good shape after being found alive in Cinarcik.

Relief officials said the final toll from Tuesday's major quake could top 40,000 when all the bodies have been found.

Meanwhile, a Turkish search team continued to comb through the rubble of a home in Golcuk on Monday, searching for a family of four.

Angry neighbors brought the rescuers in after a Malaysian team abandoned the search, believing the family dead. Dogs brought in by the Turkish team found a new, though slim, chance the family could be alive.

The aircraft carrier Kearsage and two other US Navy ships carrying marines, sailors and medical staff steam into Turkish waters

Turkish civil engineer Mehmet Hurbas said the search would be the last chance to find the family alive, but the would-be rescuers had found no sign of them Monday.

"We tried to force the pace ... We have to go faster," Hurbas said. "This is what we tried to do, but we couldn't even see anything at the level where we suspected those sounds came from."

He said working faster was more dangerous, "but this is the last chance we have."

Even as new stories of survival emerged, however, Turkey put in a request that underscored the tragedy: The government has asked the United Nations to help it find 45,000 body bags, said Sergio Piazzi, of the U.N. Humanitarian Affairs office in Geneva.

"We are shifting from the search and rescue phase to the acute emergency phase," Piazzi said. "But still we have hope to find some individuals alive."

A military commander said troops were focusing on setting up tent cities with proper sanitation to guard against disease. Soldiers scattered tons of lime over wrecked buildings and around tents in Golcuk, close to the quake's epicenter.

"To a large extent, search and rescue operations have now finished," said Gen. Hayri Kivrikoglu.

The onset of rain overnight made life more miserable for searchers and the 200,000 people left homeless in Turkey's densely populated northwest by the country's worst earthquake in 60 years.

World Health Organization spokesman Erik Noji played down the chances of an epidemic Monday, saying truckloads of fresh water had been sent to the seven provinces declared disaster zones. No cases of cholera or dysentery had been reported, as had been feared, Noji said.

But Turkey's health minister warned Monday of a new danger -- acid rain from skies polluted by emissions from a raging blaze at Turkey's largest refinery, in Izmit.

Health Minister Osman Durmus -- who has been blasted for insensitivity in the Turkish press -- said Monday that Golcuk may be evacuated due to the threat of acid rain. He said poisonous particles were emitted during the refinery fire, which lasted five days.

Durmus has been criticized for saying Turkey did not need medical aid when field workers described acute shortages. "Enough, Shut Up and Go," the daily Radikal urged Monday.

The newspaper said Durmus had spurned aid offers by Greece and Armenia, both age-old Turkish foes. But he accused the news outlets of raising unwarranted fears.

"I take being called 'ignorant and racist' as a compliment," he said, but added, "How could I refuse Armenia, Russian, Greek, American aid? It is not true."

Correspondents Walter Rodgers, Jerrold Kessel, Ben Wedeman, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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