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Floods, triggered by torrential rains in northeast, kill 5
Search-and-rescue teams retrieved the dead bodies of three women, identified as Gülsüm Demirci, Hacer Demirci and Neşe Demirci, early yesterday. The three were trapped under the debris of a four-story house after the building collapsed due to a heavy downpour and landslide late on Wednesday.
Three-year-old Beyzanur Demirci was saved by rescue teams from the debris without any serious injury. Teams continued looking for another family member, who was later presumed dead, according to Environment Minister Veysel Eroğlu. "The number of dead was four in the morning. Search-and-rescue teams could not locate a missing person. We suppose that person lost his/her life, as well. Five people have been reported dead at the moment," Eroğlu noted.
An 80-year-old woman, Nafiye Şimşek, was found dead in her home in the Borçka district of Artvin late on Wednesday. The Anatolia news agency said the woman's house had been flooded and her body was found by locals. The spillways of the Muratlı Dam in Artvin were opened to lower the water level in the reservoir so as to avoid any other sudden flooding in the city. Artvin Governor Mustafa Yemlihanoğlu announced that there were only 50 centimeters left before the dam was completely full.
 1) Seach-and-rescue teams saved 3-year-old Beyzanur Demirci from the debris. 2) Relatives of the victims came to the scene after hearing about the incidents. |
“The Borçka Dam has around 2.5 meters to go before it's full, so we are not thinking of opening its spillways at the moment,” noted the governor.
The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) has launched an aid campaign for flood-stricken Artvin residents and sent around 60 tents, 550 blankets, 30 beds and 1,620 bottles of drinking water to the region. Search-and-rescue teams affiliated with Kızılay assisted efforts in the city to find the missing member of the Demirci family.
Meanwhile, some neighborhoods in the northern province of Trabzon were hit by minor landslides triggered by heavy downpours. Sultan Yılmaz, a municipality official in the city, said roads in nine villages were closed to traffic after they became filled with soil. “We have opened some of those roads to traffic. Efforts are under way to unblock the remaining roads. We are happy there has been no injury or loss of life in our province,” Yılmaz noted.
More than 40 people were killed in the flash floods that hit İstanbul and other parts of northwest Turkey two weeks ago. Floods were triggered by the heaviest rainfall in the last 80 years. Local authorities in İstanbul faced harsh criticism as poor infrastructure and shoddy construction were to blame for the high death toll.
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