Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, located near the epicentre of the quake, plunged to minus three degrees Celsius early Friday.
Despite the cold, thousands of families have been living in cars and makeshift tents – too scared or banned from returning to their homes.
Gyms, mosques, schools and some stores have opened at night. But beds are scarce, and thousands spend the nights in cars with engines running to provide heat.
“QUIET IS AGONISING”
Monday’s quake was the largest Türkiye has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people died in the eastern Erzincan province.
Officials and medics said 18,991 people had died in Türkiye and 3,377 in Syria from Monday’s tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 22,368.
Experts fear the number will continue to rise.
Anger has mounted over the government’s handling of the disaster.
“People who didn’t die from the earthquake were left to die in the cold,” Hakan Tanriverdi told AFP in Adiyaman province.
On a visit to the area, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted there had been “shortcomings” in the government’s handling of the disaster.
In the devastated Turkish town of Nurdagi, close to the epicentre, emergency workers using drones and heat-detecting monitors ordered silence when a potential survivor was found.
“The quiet is agonising. We just don’t know what to expect,” Emre, a local resident, said as he waited next to one block on a main road into the town.
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