Hope for rescue fades as recovery operations in Turkey, Syria continue

Five members of one family were pulled from earthquake rubble after five days and a teenage girl who asked for ice cream was pulled from between concrete slabs. 

Even as the rescue stories continue to make headlines, hopes are beginning to dim as operations continue in Syria and Turkey. On Feb. 6, 7.8 and 7.5 scale earthquakes hit the area, with aftershocks causing even more devastation. 

Over 24,000 people have died, and tens of thousands more have been injured. Millions of people have been displaced. Rescuers have been working to pull people from under the rubble, but as time passes, those hopes dim. 

Conditions have also grown more dangerous for rescuers. In Turkey’s southernmost province, video captured the moment debris fell on a man working to pull people from a building. He was rescued several hours later. 

For people who have survived, the situation can feel almost hopeless. Freezing temperatures had also complicated operations in the area. 

“Look at us. I don’t have any shoes. I don’t have any water to wash my ands. We have nothing,” one woman in Adiyaman, Turkey told CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay. “There are more dead people here than alive. This city is a cemetery.”