From the bridge, Adem Serin observes below the seven diggers that stir up the rubble of his residence and the ballet of dump trucks that take turns to evacuate them.
"For me, it's like it was yesterday. I still hear calls for help on every floor. This pain will never go away", says the young thirty-year-old, haunted by this nightmare which picked them up. asleep, on the 11th floor of their tower, with his five-month-pregnant wife.
On February 6, the 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated southern Turkey over 20,000 km² and part of Syria.
A month later, his town of Kahramanmaras, two hours from the epicenter, attempted a major clean-up, raising columns of dust carried by the wind.
Visible from more than 40 km away, this huge gray cloud which floats above the agglomeration of more than one million inhabitants envelops everything, interferes everywhere, drowns the horizon.
Every day, 250 tons of rubble are evacuated to a landfill outside the suburbs: twisted irons, gutted mattresses, shredded curtains emerge between the cement plates and the concrete crumbs.
"We didn't spot any bodies... but yesterday we smelled a strong smell," said Eren Genç, a 26-year-old forest ranger, aiming his fire hose at the shapeless heaps.
More than 11,000 replicas
According to the authorities, 46,000 people died in the disaster in Turkey (and 6,000 on the Syrian side).
The sinister construction site attracts onlookers, sometimes former inhabitants in search of a souvenir, like this designer who hoped to find his sewing machine, or a family, its bedding.
The disaster that left hundreds of thousands of families homeless affected the daily lives of 14 million people.
The Veli Akgoz building is still standing but deeply cracked.
Despite the danger, when more than 11,000 aftershocks have been recorded, he climbed the stairs with his son to his apartment on the 7th floor to recover the household appliances, some utensils and a door, which he completes. to the roof of his car.
"We took big risks," admits the 54-year-old trader whose family is now crammed together at thirteen in a village house.
When you have to start your life over in a makeshift accommodation, a mattress or a few blankets recovered from the life before make the difference.
According to the government, 2 million survivors have found asylum in tents or in containers installed in stadiums or urban parks.
But the offer is far from meeting the needs.
Solmaz Tugacar and his relatives have decided to return to their damaged home: "We are afraid but we have no choice".
With her neighbours, the 50-year-old who takes a hot tea on the esplanade of the Karhamanmaras mosque, transformed into a center for the distribution of aid, in particular hot meals, is still looking for a tent.
"Maras the Heroic"
She accuses the head of her neighborhood of "saving the aid for his friends".
On the heights of the city, eleven tents have been erected in the gardens of the mukhtar (the district mayor).
Ibrahim Yayla raises the entrance to one of them: on the ground, some carpets recovered from the neighboring mosque and nothing else to accommodate his wife, their 5-year-old son and their two-month-old baby.
"So far so good, the weather is nice, but when is it going to rain?".
The 31-year-old father is not complaining: he is alive and he has managed to get all his relatives out of the rubble, including his elderly parents.
The toilets above the town hall provide a single point of water for the district.
But since the last shock on Saturday, the little Velihan refuses to set foot there again: "He is traumatized", says Ibrahim who hopes that he will be able to see a psychologist.
"We will all need it."
The electrician still hears calls for help from neighbors as he carried his mother on his back down the stairs.
The mukhtar having fled after the earthquake, it is Ali Guckiran, hairdresser for ladies, who is in charge.
He has stored boxes of baby diapers and food in a safe place and rigorously maintains distribution records.
"Each is valid for fifteen days", he justifies.
But these rations mainly contain dry products - pasta, rice, lentils...: "how to cook them without a stove?"
With water, which is even more sorely lacking in Hatay province, further south and already exposed to the heat, the lack of fuel for cooking is a serious problem.
“The other day, a truck of coal came down the hill, but people helped themselves before I could even put them away,” Ali laments.
"But we are brave here", smiles Ibrahim, who recalls that the prefix "Kahraman", added to the name of Maras means "the Heroic".
In memory of the victory over the French occupying forces after the First World War.
"We want to be an example".
with AFP
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