It's been 11 days since 2 devastating earthquakes struck southern Turkey and Syria. The death toll in the disaster has topped 43 thousand. The likelihood of finding survivors has faded significantly, but rescuers are keeping up the fight.

In one of the hardest-hit provinces of Kahramanmaras in Turkey, an emergency crew pulled a 42-year-old woman from the rubble late on Thursday, more than 10 days after she was buried. A short time later, a boy was saved in neighboring Hatay after a 260-hour ordeal.

Even after being found alive, survivors must deal with extremely harsh conditions. Many Syrians fled the civil war to Turkey 10 years ago. The evacuees have only pieces of carpet to shelter themselves from the freezing winds, and almost no privacy.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development estimates the disaster could cost Turkey up to 1% of its GDP this year.

The United Nations says it's stepping up efforts to help the survivors. It has announced an appeal to provide Turkey with 1-billion dollars in aid. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric said, "The funding which covers a three-month period will assist 5.2 million people and allow aid organizations to rapidly scale up vital support for government-led relief efforts in a number of areas, including food security, protection, education, water and shelter."

The UN also launched a 400-million-dollar humanitarian appeal earlier this week to help survivors in Syria over a 3-month period. UN officials say the quake in Syria damaged more than 8,900 buildings, and 11 thousand people lost their homes.