Hope Fades In Turkey

After three freezing nights, hopes of finding any more survivors from Turkey's second massive quake in three months were fading Tuesday. Efforts were being refocused on helping care for the newly homeless, who stand at the precipice of a long winter season.

The 72-hour window in which it is believed that people can survive beneath rubble lapsed at 7 p.m. Monday night, and some rescuers said there was no point in staying.

“It's finished, you can't find live people after 72 hours,” said Belgian fireman Jean Paul Dezutter, who stopped by the American camp for a ritual exchange of T-shirts and caps, before leaving Monday afternoon.

Friday night's 7.2-magnitude killed at least 547 people, the government said Tuesday morning. Thousands were left homeless in temperatures that plunge to below freezing each evening.

On Tuesday morning, the first rains swept the region, sending the homeless scurrying for cover.

Agcer Topal would not listen to her son's plans to leave the jerry-rigged assemblage of wood, nylon sheeting, carpets and blankets they now called home and move to another region.

“I am from here, my husband died here, I'm not leaving,” she said, although she knew she had little hope of another dry night if the rains persisted. “The rain will get under the tent.”

America’s Fairfax, Virginia team -- equipped with 100,000 pounds of equipment -- had planned a week's stay.

“Some people have started asking preliminary questions about leaving,” Rekha Chalasani, the team's spokeswoman said. “We're going to consult with the U.N. coordinators” in the coming days.

On Monday, the Fairfax County team was stripping down a flattened apartment building piece by piece with backhoes, shovels and their own feet.

"You never know," said team member Gary Bunch. "You've just got to keep going."

A total of 23 international teams arrived this time, anticipating the devastation of an August quake that killed over 17,000.

But the relatively low numbers of deaths this time have meant that a little work is spread among many rescuers.

Some teams are switching their efforts from rescue to relief, reaching out to homeless people who spend subfreezing nights in tents.

The Israeli team was set to distribute 2,000 sleeping bags in Duzce, the town hardest hit by the quake, in the coming days.

An Israeli field hospital was in place, relieving staff at the municipal hospital in Duzce, which was forced to move patients into its yard after the quake made the wards unsafe.

After the last quake, Turkish relief efforts were late in coming and largely disorganized -- leading quake victims to turn to foreigners for relief.

“We are sleeping in cars, please help us for God's sake, please help us,” one elderly woman shouted at the U.S. team as it surveyed quake-hit buldings for survivors underneath the wreckage.

Some Turks left their homes, even though their buildings survived the quake. They were fearful of the next quake, heeding a fevered rumor culture that predicted the next temblor's specific dates and hour.

Meanwhile, on the fourth day of a 10-day excursion to Europe, President Clinton arrived in the part of western Turkey hardest-hit by the August earthquake that killed as many as 17,000 people.

Mr. Clinton, who is planning a new aid package for Turkey -- which may be expanded because of the latest quake – was visiting a tent city near Izmit, in Turkey's industrial heartland.

The camp shelters 6,000 of the August quake's homeless and was set up by U.S. Marines.

Some of Istanbul's 12 million residents were close to a state of panic. On Monday evening, scores of people from a neighborhood badly damaged in August’s quake gathered in a park to sleep outside after rumors spread that a temblor would hit that evening.

The fears may be exaggerated, but they are not are baseless.
Seismologists can't forecast exactly when and where earthquakes will hit, but they have been warning Istanbul residents that their city could be vulnerable some time in the future.

Activity on Turkey's North Anatolian fault has generally moved west this century toward Istanbul, leading many experts to believe that future quakes may hit closer to the city. Since the August quake, experts have been asking Istanbul.

	Understanding Eartquakes: One of the more frightening and destructive phenomena of nature is a severe earthquake and its terrible aftereffects.