Two brothers have flown to southern Turkey from Canada to search for their missing sister, who hasn't been heard from since earthquakes rocked her city last Monday.
Samar Zora, 33, is from Halifax. She was living on the ground floor of a five-storey apartment building in Antakya, in Hatay province, conducting research for her PhD in anthropology when the quakes struck. Her brothers, Muthana and Saad, haven't heard from her since.
Dissatisfied with the support they were receiving from the Canadian Embassy, the brothers travelled to the disaster zone to search for her themselves. They plan to stay as long as it takes.
"This is our situation, but this is one of thousands. We are sitting and crying with local Turkish people," Saad told CBC News Network.
"We need to confirm her. We need to see her. We have to have a proper burial for respect of the dead," Muthana added.
The brothers are sleeping in a car and asking anyone they can for help. They flagged down rescue crews from South Korea and Hungary, and have been told it may take a month for heavy equipment to reach Samar's building to move debris.
A few days ago, someone with thermal imaging equipment visited the site and told Muthana where he should dig. Three local men pitched in, but they were forced to stop because it was too dangerous.
The brothers also connected with one of Samar's friends and are searching local hospitals and a cemetery where mass burials are being conducted.
As the desperate ground search for survivors continues, Turkish authorities are targeting contractors allegedly involved with buildings that collapsed in the powerful Feb. 6 earthquakes that killed more than 33,000 people. Rescuers found more survivors in the rubble on Sunday, including a pregnant woman and two children.
The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude and 7.5-magnitude quakes that struck nine hours apart in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria rose to 33,179 and was certain to increase as search teams find more bodies. As despair bred rage at the agonizingly slow rescue efforts, the focus turned to assigning blame.
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said 131 people were under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes. While the quakes were powerful, victims, experts and people across Turkey are blaming faulty construction for multiplying the devastation.
Turkey's construction codes meet current earthquake-engineering standards, at least on paper, but they are rarely enforced, explaining why thousands of buildings toppled over or pancaked down onto the people inside.
Among those facing scrutiny were two people arrested in Gaziantep province on suspicion of having cut down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed, the state-run Anadolu Agency said