As the government and relief organizations continue to provide shelter for survivors in the aftermath of the devastating Feb. 6 earthquakes, demolition workers continued on Thursday to remove the wreckage of the collapsed buıldings in Kahramanmaraş.
After the great destruction caused by 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes, the removal of debris in the city's two major streets, Azerbaijan and Trabzon boulevard, continued, as the truck and construction equipment operators from many cities from Türkiye participated in the work.
Backhoes and trucks unload the rubble in a field in the town of Dulkadiroğlu, designated as a dumping ground for the earthquake debris. The debris pile formed by the ruins is reportedly rising like a "mountain."
Clearance operations have intensified in the southern region as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pledged to build 200,000 housing units "from scratch" in the provinces rocked by the quake. The president earlier this week announced that construction of new housing in earthquake zones would start in March, adding that the government has allotted a TL 20 billion ($106 million) investment support package for the affected areas.
Meanwhile, the authorities shared on Thursday that some 13,224 vehicles, especially construction equipment, including excavators, tractors, cranes, dozers, trucks, water tenders, trailers, graders and vacuum trucks, are actively working in the area. The efforts to remove debris also continue in some of the worst affected provinces, including Hatay and Malatya.
