ELBISTAN, Kahramanmaraş — Jamie McDonald is no stranger to visiting countries hit by natural and man-made disasters and the damage he is seeing in Turkey after a recent earthquake is “staggering.”
McDonald, the owner of Bear’s Smokehouse restaurants, is on the ground in Elbistan, Turkey working and providing meals with the World Central Kitchen.
“It’s devastation, a really, a horribly sad situation,” said McDonald via a Zoom interview, from a World Central Kitchen serving center in Elbistan.
Elbistan is a town of approximately 150,000 people about 100 miles from the Syrian border.
“I would say at least 80% of the buildings in the town are destroyed or damaged in a manner that won’t be usable in the future,” McDonald added.
It’s been about a month since the Feb. 6 earthquake and strong aftershocks devastated parts of Turkey and Syria. More than 46,000 people were killed, around 230,000 buildings were destroyed and damaged and hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless. It is the worst disaster in Turkey’s modern history.
The United Nations estimates that the earthquake killed around 6,000 people in Syria.
About 2 million survivors have been housed in temporary accommodation or evacuated from the earthquake-devastated region, according to Turkish government figures.
McDonald, who last year worked with the World Central Kitchen in Poland providing relief to Ukrainian refugees and has served food to displaced hurricane victims in the U.S., said his latest mission has been among the most rewarding of all his experiences.
“We are in about eight different locations throughout Eastern Turkey and just trying to serve people as much food as we can every day,” he said.
While he is supposed to return to Hartford sometime next week, McDonald might stay a bit longer to continue to serve the displaced residents in the earthquake-ravaged region of Turkey.
“It’s very sad, a lot of people have lost everything,” said McDonald, and then he added, “the way I figure it is this is a part of being successful – what’s the point of having a good business if you don’t give back?”
McDonald noted that supporting the World Central Kitchen remains a top goal. To learn more about the World Central Kitchen click here.
Jimmy Altman is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at jaltman@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
---
Have a story idea or something on your mind you want to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at newstips@fox61.com
---
HERE ARE MORE WAYS TO GET FOX61 NEWS
Download the FOX61 News APP
iTunes: Click here to download
Google Play: Click here to download
Stream Live on ROKU: Add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching FOX61.
Steam Live on FIRE TV: Search ‘FOX61’ and click ‘Get’ to download.