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Flood-stricken Rize healing wounds after landslide disaster
The municipality is distributing clean water throughout the city and teams from the Health Directorate are walking on foot to areas where vehicle access was cut off after the landslides. The directorate is also driving dialysis patients from their homes to hospitals to continue their treatment. Government agencies are assisting residents in need of food aid.
Rize Governor Seyfullah Hacımüftüoğlu announced that damage assessment work had begun in the area, and added that net financial damage costs would emerge when damage assessments were complete. He said that flood victims who had lost their homes had not shown much interest in the tents set up by the Governor’s Office and the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) to meet the victims’ shelter needs.
“Residents who cannot go into their homes are being hosted by neighbors or relatives, which is something that makes us happy. It is good to see that relationships between neighbors are strong in our society.”
As relief efforts continue, tragic stories are beginning to emerge. Osman Kutak, whose body was dug out from under debris, sensed the landslide risk during the torrential downpour and rushed to his father-in-law, Salim Bilgin’s, house. According to witnesses, he was caught in the landslide while he attempting to drive his father-in-law to safety. Kutak’s body was recovered, but efforts are still underway to locate Bilgin’s body. Hikmet Kopuzoğlu, a tenant of a three-storey building toppled by the landslide said: “I have lost all my belongings. My son is getting married soon and the white goods we bought in preparation are gone. Our wedding goods, worth TL 20,000, were all buried under the landslide.” A business owner from the same building, Köksal Topal, estimated his loss at about TL 80,000.
Two siblings orphaned by landslide
The landslides have left behind grieving spouses, parents, siblings and orphans. Ümran (2) and Kayhan Pehlivan (5) lost their parents, Sonay and Mustafa Pehlivan, in the disaster. The family, who had lived in Gündoğdu for the past 18 months, earned a living working on a tea plantation they leased. Sonay and Mustafa were buried in the Güneysi district’s village of Gürgen.
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