A dire situation in northwest Syria: Devastating quake amid civil war

Live updates: Earthquake kills hundreds in southern Turkey, Syria

Videos from Syria’s opposition-held pocket offer only a glimpse of the damage. The death toll in rebel-held northwest Syria rose over the course of the day to at least 740, with hundreds of people stuck under rubble and more than 2,000 injured, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, an aid group that works in areas outside government control. Those figures are set to rise.

In Turkey, the government reported more than 2,000 people killed and more than 14,000 injured. In regions of Syria held by President Bashar al-Assad’s government, at least 711 were killed and more than 1,400 injured, according to state media outlets, mostly in Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Tartus.

In the nearly 12 years of conflict, bombardments by government forces had weakened many buildings, a White Helmets representative said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under a policy set by the group.

‘No life’ in Syrian cities as fuel crisis plunges country into darkness

The White Helmets said rain, snow and roadblocks had impeded their efforts, and they called on the international community to pressure the Syrian and Russian governments not to bombard affected areas.

In a note sent on WhatsApp on Monday, the Syrian Civil Defense representative begged foreign countries and international organizations for help.

White Helmets volunteers and members “are not capable of responding; the size of the disaster is far larger than our abilities,” he said. “Every minute, we lose a life. We are now racing with time. We need heavy equipment. We need heavy machinery dedicated for rescue missions. We need rescue teams. We need fuel. We have been using up backup fuel for the past two months.

“Tens of thousands of civilians are homeless,” he said. “The medical situation is abysmal. Tens of thousands of buildings are now cracked. There’s a snowstorm. There’s predictions of flooding in the area. The humanitarian situation is disastrous, with every meaning of the word.”

Syria’s northwest is home to roughly 4.5 million people — nearly all, 4.1 million, require humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations. Medical care is scant, as is solid infrastructure following years of bombardment by government forces and their Russian allies.

In Syria’s war without end, refugee tent camps harden into concrete cities

Half of the population has been dislocated from elsewhere, many several times. Large numbers live in tent camps or rickety settlements, often built among olive groves or on hard, barren earth. Many live in bombed-out buildings abandoned during the war.

In a statement, the International Rescue Committee, an aid organization, said the impact of the earthquake was harsh in areas hosting high numbers of displaced and vulnerable families. Overstretched by a recent cholera outbreak and grappling with a snap of freezing weather, the area is experiencing a crisis within crises, according to the IRC.

“There are very real concerns about the ability of an already decimated health system to cope,” the IRC statement said.

The area also does not have enough doctors, and many of its hospitals and health centers have been destroyed. Hospitals have been bombarded by airstrikes from Assad’s forces or those of his Russian allies, which often provided air cover during the war.

On Monday, the Syrian American Medical Society, which supports 36 facilities in northwest Syria, said four of its hospitals had been damaged and evacuated.

“The conditions in our hospitals are catastrophic,” the group said in a statement sent by WhatsApp. A video posted to social media by officials at the society, which The Washington Post was not able to immediately verify, appeared to show medical workers and civilians crowded in an emergency ward at Bab al-Hawa Hospital, in the country’s northwest.

Victims had filled the hallways, and there weren’t enough trauma supplies and equipment to save survivors or treat the injured, the group said in a statement Monday.

In government-held areas, a parallel rescue operation was underway early Monday. Assad convened an emergency meeting and ordered the cash-strapped government to distribute food and medical assistance to those in need, and to assess the stability of cracked buildings across the country, according to a post on his official Telegram channel.

Syria’s government said its Banias oil refinery near the Mediterranean coast had suffered damage from the earthquake and would be out of service for 48 hours until the issues have been addressed.

Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources said that the earthquake caused a crack in the chimney of a power unit in the oil refinery, the largest in the country, and that the brick lining of furnaces had collapsed. The earthquake also caused some oil derivatives to leak out of pipes.

The ministry added that oil compressors in a factory in Syria’s south central area were halted, checked and restarted. Syria is going through a severe oil shortage, a crisis worsened by a widespread economic collapse following a civil war that began in 2011 when Syrians took to the street to protest Assad’s rule and demand freedom.

Assad lost control over much of the oil-rich northeast of the country to U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, leaving it heavily reliant on Banias, which has the capacity to process over 130,000 barrels of crude per day, according to Reuters.

Sands reported from London.