MAIN PAGE  WORLD    africa    americas    asianow    europe    middle east  U.S.  LOCAL  POLITICS  WEATHER  BUSINESS  SPORTS  TECHNOLOGY  NATURE  ENTERTAINMENT  BOOKS  TRAVEL  FOOD  HEALTH  STYLE  IN-DEPTH  custom news  Headline News brief  daily almanac  CNN networks  CNN programs  on-air transcripts  news quiz   CNN WEB SITES:  TIME INC. SITES: Go To ... Time.com People Money Fortune EW  MORE SERVICES:  video on demand  video archive  audio on demand  news email services  free email accounts  desktop headlines  pointcast  DISCUSSION:  message boards  chat  feedback  SITE GUIDES:  help  contents  search  FASTER ACCESS:  europe  japan  WEB SERVICES: Keyword Title Author		Rains, new earthquake tremor add to distress in Turkey  ALSO: Kurdish rebels begin pullout from southeast Turkey  GALLERIES: A country lies shattered The story of a rescue 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 25, 1999 Web posted at: 4:20 a.m. EDT (0820 GMT) In this story: Quake toll revised Ecevit says building standards to improve Pentagon sending ships RELATED STORIES, SITES ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- A new tremor struck Wednesday, as relief agencies continued to help homeless survivors of the 7.4-magnitude earthquake which struck August 17. Some 200,000 quake survivors remained camped out in parks and on vacant lots, and for the second night they were drenched with heavy rains. The tremor sent Ankara residents running into the streets in panic. New supplies of emergency housing may not reach all the needy until late November -- when even heavier rains traditionally lash northwestern Turkey. A Dutch group said it would send 30,000 prefabricated shelters designed to withstand quakes and winter cold, and the United States plans to send 3,500 all-weather tents. Tent cities now dot the landscape, and the government continues to appeal for blankets, bulldozers, and building materials. The emotional effects of the massive quake are evident. Children sleep lightly, often awaking in terror from nightmares. For many, the uncertainty of not knowing how long they will be living in crowded camps has added to the misery of their situation. Quake toll revised The government early Wednesday revised the quake death toll downward by some 5,500 to 12,514, saying the confirmed deaths in the industrial city of Izmit were far fewer than previously announced. An official at the government's crisis center in Ankara, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a mistake had been made while entering data from Izmit into a computer. Still, some officials estimate the final death toll eventually could reach 40,000. Thousands of people may still be buried beneath the rubble.

On Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said that "Mistakes have been made,"in responding to the disaster.

He told CNN's Jerrold Kessel in an interview, that telecommunications failures in hard hit provinces slowed the government's response to the disaster.

"Telecommunications were completely cut off for at least two days in the three provinces which are badly hit," the prime minister said.

"And transportation was handicapped because bridges were destroyed, roads and highways were destroyed."

Although the region has suffered numerous quakes over the past decade, experts say little has been done to address the problems of shady contractors who don't bother with permits and skimp on materials, or local officials who don't enforce building codes.

Thousands of cheaply made concrete-and-cinderblock apartment blocks collapsed during the quake, crushing thousands as they slept.

Asked about alleged poor building standards and the failure of the government to have an earthquake disaster plan in place, the prime minister conceded that "mistakes had been made" in the years leading up to the earthquake.

"We are going to remedy them," he said.

Ecevit said past governments bear some responsibility for allowing the shoddy construction that contributed to the high death toll.

The Pentagon announced Tuesday that it was sending three additional ships to the coast of Turkey, primarily on a mission to provide drinking water. The ships have a combined capacity for producing up to 100,000 gallons of drinkable water a day, which can be pumped ashore while at anchor.

The three ships will bring the total number of U.S. Navy ships there to six.

Dr. Michel Thieren of the World Health Organization said the largest threat to survivors comes from poor sanitation, contaminated water and the interruption of routine medical care, not the presence of the large numbers of unburied corpses.

"The relationship between dead bodies and illness on the part of living persons is incorrect -- the risk of disease is actually low," he said in a telephone interview from Geneva.

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

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