Turkish families mourn dead after quake

ERCIS, Turkey -- Distraught Turkish families mourned outside a mosque or sought to identify loved ones among rows of bodies yesterday as rescue workers scoured debris for survivors after a 7.2-magnitude quake killed at least 279 people.

Rescue teams with generator-powered floodlights worked into the night in the worst-hit city of Ercis, where running water and electricity were cut by the quake that rocked eastern Turkey on Sunday. Unnerved by more than 200 aftershocks, many residents slept outside their homes, making campfires to ward off the cold, as aid organizations rushed to erect tents for the homeless.

Victims were trapped in mounds of concrete, twisted steel and construction debris after more than a hundred buildings in two cities and mud-brick homes in nearby villages pancaked or partly collapsed in the earthquake.

About 80 multistory buildings collapsed in Ercis, a city of 75,000 close to the Iranian border that lies in one of Turkey's most earthquake-prone zones.

Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete, allowing residents to dig for the missing with shovels.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said the quake killed 279 people and injured 1,300, though search-and-rescue efforts could end today. Grieving families cried outside an Ercis mosque. "My nephew, his wife and their child, all three dead. May God protect us from this kind of grief," resident Kursat Lap said.

In Manhattan, the Turkish Cultural Center began collecting money for relief efforts through the Helping Hands Relief Foundation. "Most of the Turkish-American people in the New York area are calling their neighbors and relatives, and there's a jam in the telephone systems in Turkey currently, so it's difficult to get information," said Mehmet Kilic, center vice president.

About 21,000 Turkish immigrants live in the metro area, including 2,600 on Long Island.

"We want to help, but we don't even know how much damage there is yet," said Joff Sahin, a Turkish immigrant who owns the Pita House restaurant in Patchogue. "The Turkish government needs some time to assess the damage."

With Víctor Manuel Ramos