Authorities End Search for Turkey Earthquake Survivors

Erics, Turkey— The death toll from last week's earthquake in southeast Turkey rose to 596 Sunday, the day after authorities stopped searching for survivors and focused on helping thousands of homeless families in crisis.

Some shops reopened on Sunday ,in Ercis, the town hit hardest by the 7.2 magnitude quake that devastated Van province on October 23, electricity was switched back on in parts of town and one bank's ATM started working.

But with hardly any of Ercis's nearly 100,000 residents ready to return to their damaged homes with such strong aftershocks still rattling the area, life is anything but normal. Sunday morning alone registered one at magnitude 5.3.

With winter fast approaching, temperatures plunge at night, and young and old in particular are falling sick in tent encampments set up by relief agencies on the outskirts of town.

"Our house is in good shape but we live in a tent due to fear. We will go back once the aftershocks are gone and the government says our house is safe," said Fadli Kocak, owner of a bakery in Ercis, who hopes to be back in business in a week.

Many people were standing in line to register for tents Sunday, a first step to having an inspection done of their home, as authorities say they will hand them out only after verifying that a building is too risky to live in.

"The problem here is that you can't give 100,000 tents in a town whose population is equal to that," Yalcin Mumcu, who coordinated search and rescue operations in Ercis, told Reuters.

After criticism in the first days of the disaster, state authorities cranked up relief operations, asking for foreign help providing tents, containers and prefabricated houses.

Hoardes of people in provincial capital Van have also clamored for tents even though far fewer buildings collapsed there. Villagers in surrounding hills are seen as more in need because most of their primitively built houses were destroyed and they would be caught in the open if there is early snow.

"Most of us sleep outside. The village has received coal and blankets but no tents," said Mehmet Siddik Demirtas, headman at Yukari Isikli village, about 6 miles from Ercis.

"We go every day to the city of Ercis to ask for tents but they tell us to wait," he said.