Missing boy in Artvin flood disaster causes parents sorrow

ARTVİN - Doğan News Agency

CİHAN photo

A five-year-old boy has gone missing after falling off a fire truck into flood water during the deadly floods and landslides which struck the Black Sea province of Artvin and left eight people dead.

The parents of five-year-old Taha Su have expressed their sorrow after Su fell into flood water and went missing on Aug. 24. 

A combined aerial and ground search for Su was still ongoing, as the young boy’s father, Erkan Su, and mother, Ayla Su, expressed great pain and cried for their beloved son.

Su and his mother were stuck in their home after Sundura Creek surged in Artvin’s Hopa district on Aug. 24, Su’s father said. 

A fire truck which had arrived at the scene to transfer the two to a safe area turned over while on the road and Su fell into the flood water.

Su’s father said he had repeatedly submitted applications to the Hopa District Municipality to take the necessary measures but nothing was done in the creek, which is prone to surges and flooding during heavy rainfall.

Artvin was struck by floods after disastrous rain and landslides killed eight people, with several others still missing, including Su. 

The Prime Ministry Disaster and Management Authority (AFAD) said in a written statement that eight people were dead and 19 others were injured after floods and landslides occurred after heavy rain in Hopa on Aug. 24, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Aug. 25. 

Recalling that a warning was issued against heavy rain on Aug. 23 in Artvin, Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Eroğlu said such heavy rainfall had only been seen in Hopa once in the past 500 years.  
 
The disaster has sparked a renewed debate among environmental organizations on whether the construction of hydroelectric power plants and many other construction projects in the Black Sea region were done properly.