The forces of nature appear determined not to give the people of Adapazari in northern Turkey a break. Their town was one of the worst affected by last week's earthquake, with local media estimates putting the death toll at 3,000 people.
In the three days immediately after the quake, heat of up to 40C hastened the dehydration of trapped victims and accelerated the decomposition of the dead. The latest blow to the city's residents is the heavy rain that has made life in the campsites around the town centre thoroughly miserable since the weekend. Many survivors trudge through the town in sandals and T-shirts, their winter clothes gone with the apartments they once lived in.
The rain has done nothing to dispel the smell of rotting corpses that penetrates even the surgical masks that residents warn newcomers to wear. Reassurances from doctors have done little to assuage survivors' fear that the floods will cause an epidemic.
Despite the living conditions Dr Vincit Bilgin Kocak at the local state hospital said the medical personnel there had no evidence of an outbreak of communicable diseases. He says particularly close attention will have to be paid to the mental health of children. "We cannot tell what effect an earthquake this big will have on children's psychological development. It will be at least 10 years before we know the full consequences."
In the meantime, survivors living in camps are trying to retain some veneer of normality. Some have already made wooden bed frames for the mattresses they salvaged. Others have decorated their tents with rugs and patio furniture.
Many have resigned themselves to a long wait for new housing. Officials have acknowledged that pre-fabricated housing may not be available for many tent residents until November. There is a widespread fear of looting among the survivors and the camps are rife with stories of "volunteers" who stole personal belongings.
The city centre, which has a population approximating that of Cork, appears as if it has been the victim of a particularly precise and capricious mortar attack. For every five storey building levelled there are two nearby that have survived intact. Long stretches of motorway into the town, churned up by the force of the earthquake, are under repair.
Hundreds of military jeeps, trucks and personnel carriers were making their way towards Adapazari yesterday, but there was little evidence of their presence on the city centre. An impressive tent village and canteen facility near the football stadium has been sponsored by the local mafia boss, who according to locals, is a the province's major heroin dealer. His benevolence is proclaimed on a banner overlooking the camp.
Elsewhere in the city centre, the crew of an Austrian truck was handing out boxes of rice to survivors. Engir and Cunyet discussed the government's efforts while queuing for their food parcel.
"The food supplies always arrive in the centre of town which means that the people here have an unfair advantage over the ones living further out. We have heard that the people in the villages have had no help at all," Engir says.
Cunyet is one of the many sandal-shod residents of Adapazari. He says shoes and rainproof clothing are what are most urgently required by survivors. Instead, the government keeps sending food into areas that already have sufficient supplies.
Reuters adds:
Turkey's Prime Minister Mr Bulent Ecevit yesterday blamed a puzzling downward revision in the earthquake death toll on a local official hoping to attract more aid for his municipality.
The Anatolian news agency quoted Mr Ecevit as saying an inquiry was underway into how the Izmit official's alleged deception put the official figure back down to 12,514 - 5,000 fewer than the number given a day earlier.
Earlier, an Interior Ministry official at the country's main crisis centre said a mistake had been made in counting the dead in the worst-hit province of Kocaeli. Izmit is in the province.
On Tuesday, the centre raised the toll to 17,997, although the true number of dead is believed to be far higher.
There was little explanation of the error from the crisis centre or from officials in the province responsible for gathering figures.
Officials were reluctant to forecast a total death toll. The UN said last week Turkish authorities feared it could reach 40,000.
Meanwhile volunteers, soldiers and Bulgarian rescuers searched yesterday for the source of faint scratching sounds that could indicate life under the rubble in the seaside town of Cinarcik.
AFP adds from Athens:
Traditional enemies Greece and Turkey should capitalise on the solidarity of their peoples that emerged following the earthquake, the Greek Foreign Minister, Mr George Papandreou, said yesterday.
The earthquake had resulted in "a new reality we cannot ignore", he told Greek radio.