Illawarra's Turkish community grieves loss of friends, family in deadly earthquake

That's when she found out about the deadly earthquake that had struck her home country Turkey.

Multicultural Communities Council of Illawarra (MCCI) Strategic partnership manager Selen Akinci who came to Australia 13 years ago said it's been a hard two days.

"I immediately called my family when I found out about the earthquake and thankfully since they are in Istanbul, they're all safe," Ms Akinci said.

Sadly, some of Ms Akinci's friends have not been so lucky.

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"Some of my friends and their families in Hatay have passed away, the province is in a bad state," she said.

The devastating earthquakes hitting a swathe of Turkey and north-western Syria have killed about 7800 people with the World Health Organisation expecting the death toll to rise to 20,000 as rescue efforts continue.

"I've got some friends in Adana as well, they're safe but not allowed to go back into their house because of the aftershocks," Ms Akinci said.

The catastrophic 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude quakes which toppled entire buildings into rubble in mere seconds have left thousands dead, trapped, injured, homeless and missing.

"The weather is also not on their side. It's winter time and it's below-zero degrees and people are dying of hypothermia," Ms Akinci said.

The Turkish born-Australian said her friends in Turkey have been in touch, telling her about the harrowing scenes unfolding before their eyes.

"So many children have been orphaned and the old and sick are suffering without access to hospitals," Ms Akinci said.

"The hospitals have collapsed and they can't get to other cities because of blocked roads."

The Turkish community in Wollongong, Ms Akinji said, has been extremely saddened by the unfortunate incident with people standing in solidarity with each other to get through the difficult time.

"We had a seniors event organised by the MCCI today and lots of Turkish seniors have not shown up because they are grieving what has happened."

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Ms Akinci is hoping the Australian people will "open their hearts" and help those suffering in Turkey and Syria.

"Whatever little donations people can make will make a huge difference to those in need," she said.

"AHBAP is a very trusted Turkish organisation actively working to raise funds for disaster relief. It was the first organisation even before the government to start the relief action."

Save The Children Fund and UNICEF are other organisations appealing for disaster relief, Ms Akinci said.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commissions can be used to check if the charity you want to donate to is registered and legitimate.

UOW geology expert Associate Professor Solomon Buckman described the earthquake as a "devastatingly powerful" one.

"The Hiroshima Nuclear bomb was equivalent to magnitude 5 earthquake so this earthquake which is 7.8 plus all the aftershocks released more than 30,000 times more energy than the Hiroshima bomb," he said.

"Although geologists have identified many of the world's active fault zones and know where earthquakes are likely to occur, predicting when they will occur is impossible within a time-frame that is useful in terms of providing warnings."

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