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

Number of people living in a building that collapses minus number of people rescued equals number of dead people. In addition people contacting authorities saying my uncle is missing and I can’t contact them and they were in the area at the time etc. This is then compiled to create an estimate of the number of dead, it is only an estimate, but with modern communications it works quite well.