How do they know how many people died so soon after a major disaster?

Question

In Turkey and Syria now they’re saying 1,800 people died already. Is it as simple as counting the bodies and reporting that?

In: 6513

Answer 1

Count the bodies, they don’t know how many people have died but they can tell you how many they have found. Whence why the numbers keep getting updated, the language used is “so far”, they report the number of people who are missing and injured alongside the dead, etc.