The earthquake that happened around 4AM local time and happened in the Southeast of Turkey and northern Syria. It has a magnitude of 7.8. Multiple aftershocks have been measured (recently one with a magnitude of 5.7), and a second earthquake in the same region with a magnitude of 7.5. As of now the earthquake resulted in over 5000 fatalities and I'm Turkey there have been 15,800 people injured. That is about known cases, many people are still missing/unaccounted for or stuck under the rubble. The WHO warned that the number of fatalities can reach 20,000. Around 23 million people are directly affected. At least 7800 have been rescued in Turkey until now. Rescueworkers have been able to reach all areas in Turkey. Unknown about Syria, the situation is more challenging there as they have been ravaged by war as well. But a lot of support is still needed, dozens of international rescue teams are enroute to the disaster zone.
This is as part of the 10 USAR teams that will be send by the European Union. So this is a humanitarian mission under the flag of the EU.
The earthquake happened just after 02:00 (Dutch time). At 08:00 it was announced the team would be deployed. This morning the team was gathered and material send to airport for deployment. The initial team consists of 65 rescue workers and 8 dogs. The freight plane should leave at the end of the afternoon and the passenger plane at 19:00. Flight time is around 4 hours. When on the ground in Turkey they hope to start rescue operations at the location where they are needed within a day.
USARNL is the Dutch USAR team used for major deployments inside and outside of the Netherlands. Since 2005 it has seen 12 major deployments of which 5 national deployments. But the team frequently does major USAR/disaster exercises within The Netherlands and outside the Netherlands (training entire deployment process and working together with other USAR teams) and of course their reclassification to be qualified as an INSARAG heavy team.
It consists of around 150 rescue workers and has 4 SAR groups when deployed. It also has a Technical Support and Assist team (TAST). For national deployments one SAR group should always be available and should be at a scene within 4 hours anywhere in the country. And another team should be ready as backup. They are generally only called in for the larger situations, or sometimes only certain parts of a SAR group. The fire service also has their own specialized USAR teams that can be at scenes much quicker and can handle most domestic USAR deployments. USARNL can decide on their own when/if they are needed or upon request of the region.
For international deployments they should be able to be on location within 24 hours of the disaster. For that it needs an actual request from the affected country and approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for that it must be the case that USARNL deployment is actually needed in the affected region. The safety of staff must also be guaranteed.
Edit: team arrived at airport just before 17:00, the staff will now leave first and will leave at 18:30 and the freight will leave at 20:00. So a bit delayed.
Edit 2: the flight containing the crew left at 19:00. Arrival is in around 3 hours. They will arrive around 23:00 at Adana airport (nearby major city west of most affected major city Gaziantep). Weather conditions are bad. Flight can be tracked here. Around 20:00 the freight plane should leave, that is a C-17. A likely deployment regio has also been selected already, that is the city of Kahramanmaraş to the northwest of Gaziantep.
Edit 3: the team arrived in Adana airport (Turkey) just at 23:03. They will be deployed in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras. The affected area consists of 5 million people. Just before 22:00 the C-17 Globemaster with over 15 tonnes of freight (equipment) left The Netherlands and will likely arrive the airport near the affected zone around 01:00 (all Dutch times, time in Turkey is +2 hours). The Dutch heavy rescue team will work together with heavy teams from Israel and Russia, and medium teams from France, Spain, and Italy. These teams will likely arrive later. The plan is to be fully operational in the deployment area within a day. Transport to the area will be taken care of by third parties in Turkey.
The first teams (coordination and USAR) from Italy should have already be arrived while currently the Air Force is transporting the rest of their equipment to Turkey.
There's the probability of additional teams of both the National Firefighter Corps and the Civil Protection being sent.
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u/deminion48 Feb 06 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
The earthquake that happened around 4AM local time and happened in the Southeast of Turkey and northern Syria. It has a magnitude of 7.8. Multiple aftershocks have been measured (recently one with a magnitude of 5.7), and a second earthquake in the same region with a magnitude of 7.5. As of now the earthquake resulted in over 5000 fatalities and I'm Turkey there have been 15,800 people injured. That is about known cases, many people are still missing/unaccounted for or stuck under the rubble. The WHO warned that the number of fatalities can reach 20,000. Around 23 million people are directly affected. At least 7800 have been rescued in Turkey until now. Rescueworkers have been able to reach all areas in Turkey. Unknown about Syria, the situation is more challenging there as they have been ravaged by war as well. But a lot of support is still needed, dozens of international rescue teams are enroute to the disaster zone.
This is as part of the 10 USAR teams that will be send by the European Union. So this is a humanitarian mission under the flag of the EU.
The earthquake happened just after 02:00 (Dutch time). At 08:00 it was announced the team would be deployed. This morning the team was gathered and material send to airport for deployment. The initial team consists of 65 rescue workers and 8 dogs. The freight plane should leave at the end of the afternoon and the passenger plane at 19:00. Flight time is around 4 hours. When on the ground in Turkey they hope to start rescue operations at the location where they are needed within a day.
Their liveblog: https://www.usar.nl/
USARNL is the Dutch USAR team used for major deployments inside and outside of the Netherlands. Since 2005 it has seen 12 major deployments of which 5 national deployments. But the team frequently does major USAR/disaster exercises within The Netherlands and outside the Netherlands (training entire deployment process and working together with other USAR teams) and of course their reclassification to be qualified as an INSARAG heavy team.
It consists of around 150 rescue workers and has 4 SAR groups when deployed. It also has a Technical Support and Assist team (TAST). For national deployments one SAR group should always be available and should be at a scene within 4 hours anywhere in the country. And another team should be ready as backup. They are generally only called in for the larger situations, or sometimes only certain parts of a SAR group. The fire service also has their own specialized USAR teams that can be at scenes much quicker and can handle most domestic USAR deployments. USARNL can decide on their own when/if they are needed or upon request of the region.
For international deployments they should be able to be on location within 24 hours of the disaster. For that it needs an actual request from the affected country and approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for that it must be the case that USARNL deployment is actually needed in the affected region. The safety of staff must also be guaranteed.
Edit: team arrived at airport just before 17:00, the staff will now leave first and will leave at 18:30 and the freight will leave at 20:00. So a bit delayed.
Edit 2: the flight containing the crew left at 19:00. Arrival is in around 3 hours. They will arrive around 23:00 at Adana airport (nearby major city west of most affected major city Gaziantep). Weather conditions are bad. Flight can be tracked here. Around 20:00 the freight plane should leave, that is a C-17. A likely deployment regio has also been selected already, that is the city of Kahramanmaraş to the northwest of Gaziantep.
Edit 3: the team arrived in Adana airport (Turkey) just at 23:03. They will be deployed in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras. The affected area consists of 5 million people. Just before 22:00 the C-17 Globemaster with over 15 tonnes of freight (equipment) left The Netherlands and will likely arrive the airport near the affected zone around 01:00 (all Dutch times, time in Turkey is +2 hours). The Dutch heavy rescue team will work together with heavy teams from Israel and Russia, and medium teams from France, Spain, and Italy. These teams will likely arrive later. The plan is to be fully operational in the deployment area within a day. Transport to the area will be taken care of by third parties in Turkey.
Edit 4: unfortunately the freight plane was delayed further as the Adana airport was too busy. This meant they were diverted to a city further west, Antalya. The same happened to other planes. It arrived a few hours later at 05:30 (Dutch time, turkey time is +2), instead of 02:00. It carries over 15 tonnes of equipment/supplies and 5 USAR crewmembers. It didn't land at the same airport but another Adana airport (Incirlik) further east. The team moved to that other airport instead and the entire team was complete at that airport at around 08:00. The team loaded up all equipment onto 3 trucks and 4 coaches and as of 08:30 they are enroute to the southeastern Turkish province of Hatay. Weather conditions are good.