(Yicai Global) Feb. 15 -- Three warehouses in Shanghai are already overflowing with supplies donated by the Chinese people to help the earthquake-stricken citizens of Turkey since their address was made public last week, and a fourth will be needed soon.

The Consulate General of the Republic of Türkiye in Shanghai announced on Feb. 8 the addresses of warehouses in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong where people could send supplies in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that struck the Middle Eastern country on Feb. 6, with the death toll now at 40,000 and rising.

"We only had one warehouse at first, but it filled up so quickly, that we had to open two more and will probably need a fourth soon,” said a staff member of the Turkish Consulate General in Shanghai. “We are very short-staffed and have to work here all day sorting and carrying packages.”

“These boxes are filled with winter blankets,” said Hüseyin Emre Engin, Consul General of Türkiye in Shanghai, who was at the site0. "Due to the limited air capacity, they will be packed together with tents, gas stoves and sanitary products and delivered to Türkiye as the first batch of supplies."

Volunteers sort through the mountains of boxes. The warehouses are located close to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the airport out of which Turkish Airlines operates. Even at night, trucks and delivery vans unload supplies brought in from across the country.

SilaTugce, a Turkish post-graduate student in Shanghai who is helping the Consulate General respond to inquiries about donations, said she is going ‘crazy’ as her phone won’t stop ringing. She is answering ‘three calls a minute’ and most of the calls are about what are the most urgently needed supplies that people can donate.

Sila, who is majoring in world literature at the East China Normal University, was putting her language skills to full use, by receiving people who brought supplies to the warehouse in person, telling van drivers where to offload supplies and labelling the boxes in three different languages.

A large team from Blue Sky Rescue, China’s largest non-governmental humanitarian organization, was also on site to help the volunteers unpack and sort the packages so that the most urgently needed supplies are sent first.

Blue Sky Rescue’s experience in disaster relief can help increase sorting efficiency, said Su Chenglong, head of the Blue Sky Rescue’s Xuancheng division in Anhui.

Chongqing-based Blue Sky Rescue has 300 members working on the frontline in Türkiye, Su said. As of 12 noon Beijing time on Feb. 13, they has searched 315 buildings and rescued eight people and recovered 85 bodies in collaboration with other rescue teams. They are continuing their work in the towns of Malatya, Adıyaman and Kahlamanmaraş.

There are reportedly 440 people from 17 private Chinese emergency forces carrying out rescue work in the earthquake-stricken areas.

A pile of boxes is ready for shipment. The words ‘We stand with you!’ appear in three languages on the labels.

The supplies will be flown first to Istanbul and from there to Adana airport, which is the closest major airport to the disaster area, said Engin. There is a large warehouse run by the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority and the Turkish Red Crescent in Adana. They have a list of what each earthquake-stricken area needs and will organize the delivery of supplies.

Another box filled with cotton jackets bears the slogan ‘mountains and valleys never meet but people do.’

Editor: Kim Taylor