ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey's quake-stricken region is in urgent need of 25,000 tents, an official said Monday, as snow was expected to fall on the tens of thousands of people sleeping outdoors.
Necmettin Akca, spokesman for the provincial governor, said blankets and gas heaters are also needed. Snow was expected to hit the area Wednesday, Akca said. Temperatures have already dropped to as low as 18 degrees.
More than 30,000 tents have been distributed in the province of Bolu, which was hit by a Nov. 12 quake, which killed 714 people in western Turkey and injured over 5,100 according to the latest toll, and by an even more powerful quake in August.
There are some 200,000 people who have lost or left their homes, although many already have been placed in temporary shelter. Tens of thousands of people remain under makeshift tents, often made of a few planks of wood covered by a plastic sheet.
Hundreds of residents already have left the region, and the government has offered to host 11,000 of them in guest houses and government-run summer camps throughout the country.
The quake left almost nothing unscathed in Duzce.
``Ninety-five percent of Duzce is damaged,'' Orhan Ozturk, an official of Duzce's crisis center, was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency Monday. After crews tear down the damaged buildings, ``Duzce will be an empty field,'' he said.
Also Monday, the newly elected board of the Turkish Red Crescent named a new president to the state-linked organization. The group was severely criticized for failing to come to the aid of victims of the Aug. 17 quake, which killed more than 17,000, and for distributing poor quality tents to survivors.
Ertan Gonen, a 64-year-old surgeon, was named head of the group after its former president and entire board resigned following allegations of mismanagement.