NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Tens of thousands of people are confirmed dead and countless others are still missing in the rubble following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that stunned Turkey and Syria last week.

Crews on the ground are searching for any signs of life, including Jeremy Locke and his team Aerial Recovery, of Nashville.  

Aerial Recovery helps veterans, like Locke, who have PTSD, depression or anxiety, go through a training program called Heal Our Heroes, and then respond to disasters all over the world

Locke and his team have responded to natural disasters and humanitarian crises all over the world, from the earthquake in Haiti to the war in Ukraine — but Locke says he’s never seen anything like this.

“These cities that we’ve been to they’re just completely obliterated. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Locke.

“These things are just completely toppled over, like all of the bottom floors are completely imploded, and then they just kind of fall in on each other like, like you’re shuffling cards or something,” said Locke. “It’s unbelievable. It looks like you’re walking from block to block through like a movie set. You know, it’s the end of days or something. It’s completely insane looking.”

The Nashville-based team are using thermal imagery and sonar equipment to find people trapped in the debris and then work to pull them out.

“It’s a matter of then climbing inside and seeing how deep you can get inside of these kind of like, mangled labyrinth. Then going back out, it’s hard to describe the situation because when you’re climbing inside, you’re climbing past unfortunately, people that are have been killed, to try to find ones that might be alive,” said Locke. “Then you come back out and then we use heavy equipment to try to remove layer by layer to get down deeper.”

It’s been a week since the earthquake hit, but not all hope for finding survivors is lost. On Sunday, Locke and his team helped rescue a young pregnant mother and her three-year-old daughter.

“It’s elation. It is really, it’s amazing,” Locke remembered of the rescue. “It’s such a great feeling, because it really is desperation. Prior to that, especially for the locals out there. They’re desperately searching for any signs of life, their friends and family and then when someone comes out and for the workers that on the rescuers, it doesn’t matter who it is. It’s just when someone comes out, they’re just they’re so happy.”

Locke says the celebrations of life are brief but but encouraging. The team remains hopeful for more rescues — rather than recoveries.

If you would like to help Aerial Recovery and their rescue efforts, click here.