Efforts continue to search for missing people in flood-hit towns

KASTAMONU

As 33 people are still missing after severe floods ravaged parts of the country’s Black Sea coast, rescue teams are working round the clock, with excavators clearing the sludge and building wreckage that was left behind, hoping to save them.

The underwater units of the gendarmerie forces deployed in the Black Sea province of Kastamonu’s Bozkurt district shifted their efforts around the bed of the Ezine Stream as the flow of the water decreased.

The Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said 26 people were still unaccounted for in the Kastamonu province and eight others were reported missing in Sinop province.

At least 78 people were killed after torrential rains battered northwestern provinces on Aug. 11, causing floods that demolished homes and bridges, swept away cars and blocked access to numerous roads.

More than 9,500 personnel and 19 trained dogs were involved in the rescue efforts as well as efforts to provide assistance, AFAD said.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) also installed temporary bridges to replace those that were destroyed, while helicopters carried aid to villages still cut off by flood-blocked roads.

Meanwhile, police in Istanbul detained the contractor of an eight-story building in Bozkurt that collapsed in the flooding. The suspect is expected to be taken to Bozkurt for questioning by prosecutors.

While the people in Bozkurt were trying to heal the wounds of the disaster, an emergency demolition decision was made for 140 heavily damaged buildings.

The residents of these apartments are trying to salvage the items they can get from their homes.