As death toll climbs after earthquake, local residents check on family in Middle East
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Feb. 7—Just before bed Sunday night, Ismail Onat, Ph.D., learned an earthquake had rocked Turkey. He immediately called his mom.
Onat, a University of Scranton professor and a native of the Middle Eastern country, learned his family was OK but each update he saw about the devastating quake and its aftermath left him more heartbroken.
Onat and other local residents with ties to Turkey and Syria are trying to determine how to help from here as the death toll climbs.
"When you see little kids coming out of the ruins, and people are all crying, begging for help ... it's really unbearable," said Onat, an associate professor in the sociology, criminal justice and cybercrime department.
The university will offer prayers for the victims at Masses this week and take a collection the next two Sundays to support efforts through Catholic Relief Services.
The student government at Penn State Scranton will collect donations, and the Islamic Center of Scranton will also help, said Marwan Wafa, Ph.D., a member of the center and the chancellor of Penn State Scranton.
Wafa, a native of Kuwait, called the devastation "beyond imagination."
Melinda Krokus, Ph.D., an associate professor who teaches religion at Marywood University, has lived in Turkey. Builders often take shortcuts during the construction process, leading earthquakes to be even more devastating, she said.
The Muslim community gathers each Friday at the Islamic Center's North Scranton mosque on West Pass Avenue. Krokus, a board member of the center, has reached out to other members to see if their families are OK.
Onat, who began teaching at the university in 2016, spent much of his childhood in Northeast Turkey before moving to Istanbul, in the northwest part of the country.
His family lives far from the southern border with Syria, where the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks toppled buildings and destroyed infrastructure.
While Onat's family is safe in the north, he has tried to contact friends who live in the south. A close friend and his family survived the collapse of their four-story building, with his daughter being pulled out alive.
Onat worries about the psychological impact on the survivors and sees the Turkish government trying to restrict information as its residents suffer.
"This is going to require a lot of resources to rebuild the cities," he said. "We don't know how many losses are there."
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