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cause she could not navigate them herself. He took her to his brother’s warehouse, which had an administration building where they would end up sleeping on the floor for the next several days since a one-story building was the safest place to be.

That afternoon, he went to get some of their things from the house. He was there taking a shower when the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck and said he grabbed some clothes and got out quick.

In the coming days, Kilic said his whole world felt shaky in more ways than one. By the time he left the country, there had been 1,800 aftershocks. As of last week, news agencies were reporting ongoing aftershocks had surpassed 3,800.

“I lost my equilibrium. I would wake up in the morning and it took a minute or two to get my balance,” he said.

Meanwhile, devastation was everywhere you looked with buildings collapsed and rescue workers struggling to find survivors while fighting exhaustion and cold. Kilic said he and his brothers weren’t trained as search and rescue workers and didn’t want to add to the danger of the situation, so they supported the workers by bringing supplies such as water and hot soup to help them warm up a little in the cold temperatures.

He praised not only the Turkish search and rescue teams but the ones that came from so many different countries around the world to help the roughly 400 miles of impacted area.

The country is building tent cities to get a “roof” over the heads of people who lost everything or putting them at hotels or college dorms to get them out of the winter weather, he said.

Kilic urged people to help disasters victims however they can and thanked all those who already have leant aid in some way.

“This is not only about Turkey or people in Turkey. Any country, pretty much anybody, could be in the same situation. It just shows us that there are still good people out there willing to help unconditionally and it just means a lot to us,” he said.

Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.