Read the Bible and pray when stuck
A Syrian girl named Mariam shields her brother with her arms as they are both trapped in the rubble following a devastating earthquake on February 6. CNN photo
According to CNN, two children were trapped under the rubble of their family’s house in Besnaya-Bseineh, a small village in Haram, Syria following a 7.8-magnitude earthquake on February 6.
“Get me out of here, I’ll do anything for you. I’ll be your servant,” the Syrian girl whispered to rescuers who were squatting digging through rocks to try to save the two children. .
“No, you don’t have to,” replied one of the lifeguards.
The girl’s name is Mariam. She gently stroked the hair on her brother’s head as they lay on top of each other in the rubble. Mariam was able to move her hand enough to cover her brother’s face, keeping her out of the dust between the debris.
The younger brother’s name is Ilaaf, a Muslim name that means protection. Two children were saved 36 hours following the earthquake.
Rescuers successfully rescued Mariam’s family, but many others are still trapped under the rubble. CNN photo
Mustafa Zuhir Al-Sayed – Mariam’s father – said his wife and three children were sleeping at dawn on Monday, February 6, when their house was shaken by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. the largest to have occurred in the region in more than a century.
“We felt the ground shake… Then bricks and concrete began to fall on our heads, and we lay under the rubble for two days. We experienced what I hope no one else feels like. other must feel,” said Al-Sayed.
Buried under the rubble, Al-Sayed said his family read the Koran and prayed loudly that someone would find them.
“People heard us, and we were rescued – me, my wife and the children. Thank God we are all alive and we are grateful to those who rescued us,” the father of three shared.
Video shows locals cheering as Mariam and Ilaaf are pulled out of the rubble, wrapped in blankets. The children were taken to the hospital, where they are receiving medical care.
The death toll is expected to continue to rise
With every passing hour, hopes of finding other families dwindle in freezing temperatures making survival more difficult even for those seeking to escape the dilapidated buildings.
The death toll from the earthquake disaster in Turkey – Syria has approached the 10,000 mark, according to Archyde.com. Rescuers are racing once morest time to get victims out of the rubble and they are running out of time.
The Syrian Civil Defense, a humanitarian aid group commonly known as the “White Helmets,” said the death toll and injured “is expected to increase significantly as hundreds of families are still lying in bed.” under the rubble”.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) also said that rescue efforts were in a race once morest time as the chances of finding survivors were passing by minute by hour.
In Turkey, dozens of bodies – some covered with blankets and bed sheets, others in body bags – lined up outside a hospital in Hatay province.
Many people in the disaster area had to sleep in their cars and even on the streets, not daring to return to buildings badly damaged by Turkey’s deadliest earthquake since 1999.
In the town of Jandaris in northern Syria, rescue workers and residents said dozens of buildings had collapsed. Standing around the rubble of a 32-unit building, rescuers said they did not see anyone alive. The lack of heavy equipment to move large concrete slabs is hampering rescue efforts. In addition, rescuers were also hampered by damaged roads, bad weather and lack of resources.