Up the road, four members of a family climbed over another mound of debris in an attempt to save belongings.
“We just want something to eat,” said Father Bilal Bolukbasi. They formed a human chain, carrying whatever they could find from the rubble to the sidewalk, where bags of frozen meat, boxes of crushed tomatoes and jars of cereal were kept.
Around town, residents walked with their phones, documenting what was left.
“For the memories,” said one man.
The team of civil engineers visited the main road. Savas Karabulut, a seismologist at Gebze Tech University, said he was inspecting the damage for an academic report.