HAMAMUSTU, Turkey -- Shoppers lugging sacks of food step carefully to avoid falling into a deep crack that Turkey's latest deadly earthquake opened in the main road of this village.
Friday's quake tore through Hamamustu, literally, and changed the lay of the land. The village now lies six feet lower than it did before the quake. And the earth beneath villagers' feet shifted six feet toward the lake, residents said.Even the lake isn't the same. As the earth rumbled, methane gas popped through the shores of Eftem Lake, catching fire and ringing the water with flames.
The flames shooting out of the bubbling mud distracted residents from the rain that on Tuesday soaked other hamlets and cities, including the hardest-hit place, nearby Duzce, which suffered through Turkey's second major quake in three months.
More rain was forecast for Wednesday.
Some 600 lives were lost throughout northwestern Turkey, hundreds of buildings collapsed, and thousands shivered through the cold with no homes while still enduring aftershocks.
Each town, it seems, had its particular horror when the quake came on Friday.
"There was a huge explosion. Then the fire started," said 20-year-old Hasan Celebi.
A geologist, Huseyin Semden, from the state petroleum office, told villagers that the gas was nearly burned up. "It is not dangerous," said Semden. The fire burned despite the downpour.
The minaret of the Hamamustu's mosque broke and fell across the road. A farmer saying Friday evening prayers was killed.
Part of a hill in Hamamustu smashed into Sinan Zengin's wooden shack, which had been his home since the Aug. 17 quake devastated the northwest region and robbed him of his house. He was trying to stave off the cold by huddling around a camp fire in front of the village grocery store.
Little aid can reach the farming village because of the poor condition of the road, which runs by the fault line.
"We have plastic sheeting from our greenhouses and wood to built huts," said Ahmet Uzun. "What is missing is the food aid."