EARTHQUAKE DISASTER IN TURKEY

From the Christian Science Monitor:

More than 100 people were confirmed killed and hundreds more feared dead Sunday when a powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey, flattening buildings and leaving survivors crying for help from under the rubble.

As a cold night fell, survivors and emergency workers battled to pull hundreds of people believed to be buried under debris in the city of Van and town of Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.

Residents in Van joined in a frantic search, using hands and shovels and working under floodlights and flashlights, hearing voices of people buried alive calling from under mounds of broken concrete in pitch darkness and freezing temperatures.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who traveled by helicopter to the area to see firsthand the scale of Turkey's worst earthquake in a decade, told a nationally televised news conference at least 138 people had been killed -- 93 in Van city center and 45 in Ercis. The toll was expected to rise.

The situation is dire in so many ways. Pray for the people in the area of the earthquake.