Landslide destroys 15 houses in Black Sea province of Ordu

ORDU

A landslide destroyed 15 houses in the Black Sea province of Ordu’s Aybastı district early on May 16. 

The landslide also left some houses, including a mosque, slanted.

The destroyed buildings were already evacuated after a landslide in February had put the area at risk.

Following a new expert investigation in the area, the teams decided to evacuate the Sağlık neighborhood completely. The neighborhood has 70 households.

The gendarmerie took security precautions and prohibited entrance to the area where the landslide took place.

A former academic of Karadeniz Technical University (KTÜ) said that Aybastı had the “typical” topography of the Black Sea region, which is known as one of the most landslide-prone regions in the country.

Indicating that many landslide-prone areas in the Black Sea region had been opened to residence, Osman Bektaş said: “The reason of this is that the areas in [the region] are few for urbanization purposes or populist policies. And because of this, the number of disasters in the future will increase.”