Turkey suffers another catastrophe as floods kill 27
Disastrous downpours in the north follow in the wake of raging wildfires in the south
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The devastation in the northern Kastamonu province after flash floods swept across several Black Sea regions. Storms that swept in from the Balkans late on Tuesday turned streets into rivers and set off mudslides that buckled roads and tore down bridges in three mountainous regions hugging Turkey's rugged Black Sea coast.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
•ISTANBUL • Emergency workers battled to relieve flood-hit areas of Turkey's Black Sea region yesterday, as the death toll rose to 27 in the second natural disaster to strike the country this month.
The floods, among the worst that Turkey has experienced, brought chaos to northern provinces just as the authorities were declaring wildfires that raged through southern coastal regions for two weeks had been brought under control.
Torrents of water tossed dozens of cars and heaps of debris along streets, destroyed bridges, closed roads and cut off electricity to hundreds of villages.
"This is the worst flood disaster I have seen," Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters late on Thursday after surveying damage that extended across the provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu and Sinop.
Twenty-five people died as a result of floods in Kastamonu and another two people died in Sinop, the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) said.
Opposition politicians said many more people were missing and the number of deaths could rise sharply.
"The infrastructure in Ayancik (district) has completely collapsed. The sewage system is destroyed. There is no electricity or water," Sinop Mayor Baris Ayhan told Reuters.
The floods and fires, which killed eight people and devastated tens of thousands of hectares of forest, struck in the same week that a United Nations panel said global warming was dangerously close to spiralling out of control, and warned that extreme weather would become more severe.
About 45cm of rain fell in less than three days in one village near the worst-hit region, Kastamonu's Bozkurt district, AFAD cited the meteorology authorities as saying.
Footage of the flood's first moments in Bozkurt showed the river there overflowing in a fast-moving deluge which tore up trees and dragged away vehicles.
The small town of Bozkurt lies in a valley along the banks of the Ezine River in Kastamonu province, 2.5km from the Black Sea.
Opposition Republican People's Party lawmakers attributed the level of destruction there to extensive construction on the river banks in recent years.
Speaking in Bozkurt, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared the three provinces a disaster zone.
"Our country has been grappling with natural disasters for a while, as are many places in the world. This is not just our country but the United States, Canada, Germany and many other European countries," he said.
More than 1,700 people were evacuated from flood-affected areas, some with the aid of helicopters and boats, AFAD said.
Helicopters lowered coast guard personnel on to the roofs of buildings to rescue people stranded as flood water swept through the streets, footage shared by the Interior Ministry showed.
Turkey's meteorology authority said more heavy rain was expected in the central and eastern Black Sea region with a risk of further floods.
REUTERS