Heavy rains caused flooding in two cities in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday afternoon, already hit between February 5 and 6 by the earthquake that caused 48,000 deaths in Turkey alone. At the moment 14 people have died from the floods, but the authorities report 5 missing: the affected cities are Sanliurfa, where 12 people died, and Tut, in the province of Adiyaman, where a container that housed two families was taken away by the water, causing the death of a woman.
The floods were caused by decidedly unusual rains, but the difficult conditions in which the cities and their inhabitants find themselves after the earthquake made the toll worse: some of the dead lived in containers or in tents which were overwhelmed by the waterfall. On other occasions the floods overwhelmed cars, especially at an underpass in Sanliurfa: videos of the rescue of some motorists were published on social networks, while others were unable to get out of the cars, communicate the local authorities.
Video showed flood waters sweeping people and cars down streets in Turkey’s #Sanliurfawhich was hit by February’s deadly earthquakes ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/X2CMgtOgX7
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 15, 2023
In the space of 24 hours, 136 millimeters of rain fell in the Adiyaman area, in Sanliurfa 111: this is a third of rainfall which are usually recorded in an entire year.
NEW: Earthquake-hit Turkey region faces flash floods, video shows man getting washed away in flood water pic.twitter.com/6dFBs56ksL
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) March 15, 2023
Ground floor homes, containers and tents in Sanliurfa were evacuated, as was a hospital, which was housing around 200 patients. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu arrived on the scene. The rains should continue, but with less intensity, also in the next two days.
Turkey is facing yet another tragedy with floods across the quake-hit region killing 10 people. The culprit is the same: NOT the nature, but years of corrupt engineering practices, insufficient rules &their lax enforcement and no accountability. Outrageouspic.twitter.com/CHL79YsK5z
— Hümeyra Pamuk (@humeyra_pamuk) March 15, 2023