Turkey earthquake donation: Chicago groups gather funds, medical aid for victims in Turkey, Syria

CHICAGO (WLS) — The race to help the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria extends all the way to Chicago.

Rescue crews are racing to find survivors in the earthquake rubble.

The death toll is now over 5,000.

Over 24,000 emergency personnel are now on the ground.

As the death toll continues to rise, local Turkish organizations in Chicago are doing everything they can to help.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake has already claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

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Monday’s earthquake brought down thousands of buildings, and, as rescuers were frantically looking for survivors, their efforts were impacted by temperatures below freezing and some 200 aftershocks, which made the search through unstable structures difficult.

The president of Chicago’s Turkish American Cultural Alliance is visiting family in Istanbul, and she is scrambling together whatever help she can.

“I’m kind of stuck in Istanbul and trying to reach out to people in Chicago, my colleagues and friends, to organize the help that we can,” said Vildan Gorener, president of the Turkish American Cultural Alliance. “It is worse than what you can imagine.”

In Chicago, loved ones worry and wait.

“A friend’s brother-in-law, they are trying to communicate with him. They learned his building was totally destroyed. They are hoping he was saved,” said Ryan Uysaler of Embrace Relief Foundation Chicago.

The co-founder of Chicago area-based MedGlobal said he had about 100 people working on the ground before the earthquake.

Now they, too, are trying to wrangle donations to get relief quickly.

It’s the middle of winter in Turkey, and most people in the earthquake zone are now homeless.

The Turkish American Cultural Alliance in Chicago is asking for donations of winter supplies to send to the region as quickly as possible.