UPDATE….
The death toll has risen to over 3,800 4,000 7,700
(The 5,000 figure was incorrect initially)….
The US will of course (GOPer’s?) join other countries in sending help……
Even Isreal, which has been on bad terms with Turkey and the Ukraine….
Maybe even the Swiss and Finn’s who need Turkey’s ok to join NATO….
Additional….
There has been a second earthquake of 7.5 magnitude….The first was 7.8….
There is video of whole apartments collapsed …
Search-and-rescue efforts at the site of a destroyed residential building in Sanliurfa, Turkey. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)
…
The U.S. is moving quickly to send assistance to Turkey and Syria as the death toll from a powerful earthquake continues to rise, President Joe Biden said Monday.
“My Administration has been working closely with our NATO Ally Turkiye, and I authorized an immediate U.S. response. At my direction, senior American officials reached out immediately to their Turkish counterparts to coordinate any and all needed assistance,” Biden said in a statement. “Our teams are deploying quickly to begin to support Turkish search and rescue efforts and address the needs of those injured and displaced by the earthquake. U.S.-supported humanitarian partners are also responding to the destruction in Syria.”
The deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake toppled hundreds of residential buildings in Turkey and Syria early Monday morning local time, according to reporting from The Associated Press. The death toll is expected to rise as rescue workers continue to dig through the rubble across both countries.
The U.S. response “is already underway,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. “We are determined to do all that we can to help those affected by these earthquakes in the days, weeks, and months ahead.”
Late Sunday evening, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the White House was “profoundly concerned” by initial reports of the devastation caused by the quake, adding that the U.S. was “ready to provide any and all needed assistance,” to the region.
“President Biden has directed USAID and other federal government partners to assess U.S. response options to help those most affected,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We will continue to closely monitor the situation in coordination with the Government of Turkiye.”
The earthquake was felt as far away as Cairo, and impacted a swath of land stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Diyarbakir in Turkey, according to The Associated Press.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pledged to work with the White House to deliver aid to the region…..