Image via Washington Post
After a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on Monday, more than 1,500 people are dead.
The epicenter of the earthquake was located little over 14 miles east of Nurda in the Turkish province of Gaziantep. More than 1,500 deaths have been confirmed as of this writing, according to the Associated Press, with hundreds more potentially trapped under the severe damage. The earthquake also caused hundreds of buildings to be destroyed.
The Turkish president, Tayyip Erdoan, acknowledged in a statement on Monday that he had been briefed on the earthquake and that numerous organizations, including the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority and the Turkish Armed Forces, were taking prompt action.
An emergency Council of Ministers meeting was called on Monday morning, according to a separate statement from the office of Syria’s president, Bashar Hafez al-Assad. Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia were later identified as the “most affected” areas in Syria. A national emergency action plan was being implemented in response.
The U.S. Agency for International Development and other federal partners have been asked to investigate how the country can best help individuals affected by the disaster, according to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan of the White House, who also addressed the earthquake.