Relief efforts for the survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria are underway, including from New York fashion designer Peyman Umay, who was visiting the country during the disaster.

“Everybody I call, I speak to, is crying on the phone because they either lost someone from their family or know someone who lost someone,” Umay said.

Umay was safe from the earthquake in Istanbul, about 500 miles from the epicenter where roughly 35,000 people have died.

“Thousands of people have died, and we don’t even know the number yet. There are certain cities where the help couldn’t even get in, yet,” Umay said.

The purpose of his trip was to oversee the making of his high-end fashion collection.

That was scraped and transformed into an assembly line with more than a dozen employees churning out warm clothes for survivors left with nothing.

Umay said he was able to ship thousands of clothes and deliver them to disaster areas because of his team and their work.

"Every single person is going crazy try to help people," Umay said.

Umay traveled to Hatay, where he is from, among other areas impacted to bring shipments of clothes. It’s the province with one of the highest recorded death tolls.

“I lost a couple who got married last year. I was invited to their wedding, but I couldn’t make it because I was in New York,” Umay said.

Umay is working with AKUT Search and Rescue to deliver the boxes to shelters.

His fashion collection is on hold for now as he hopes emergency workers are able to find more survivors as the rescue effort slowly turns into a recovery.

Experts say the window for rescues has nearly closed due to the length that has passed, freezing temperatures and the severity of the building collapses

To help in the relief efforts, visit tpfund.org.