Heavy downpour cripples life in Turkey’s west, snowfall expected

ISTANBUL

Heavy rain and strong winds have been battering Turkey’s west for the past three days, disrupting daily life everywhere from Istanbul to İzmir, with at least five people injured due to floods and storms.

The bad weather disrupted life in Istanbul on Jan. 12, when heavy rainfall hit several districts, flooding houses and shops and leaving vehicles stranded in traffic.

Locals rushed to clear floodwaters from shops and ground-floor residences, while motorists waded through knee-deep water to get off busiest roads in Silivri, a district on the far western side of the city.

Heavy downpour was also seen in the Asian side of the city, flooding the streets and bringing traffic to a halt.

A tree fell in the middle of the road on the Bağdat Street, one of the busiest boulevards of the Kadıköy district, due to strong winds early Jan. 13. No casualties were reported.

İzmir also was battered by downpours once again after a precipitous weather system extended its stay over the city for a second day.

Houses and shops were flooded in some districts in İzmir while traffic came to a halt due to floodwaters accumulating in the city’s underpasses.

Much of the city’s Buca and Gaziemir districts were flooded after the heavy rains, with some roads partially submerged.

In an incident, an old woman was caught in floodwaters in the Buca district. She was trapped under a parked truck on Özbekistan (Uzbekistan) Avenue.

Police forces rescued the woman who was injured and whose cries for help were echoing in the street.

During the storm in the Aegean region, a container house with five people in the province of Manisa was blown away by strong winds to about 30 meters. Two people were injured in the incident.

Heavy rains caused the Tunca River in the northwestern province of Edirne on the Greek and Bulgarian border to rise, with officials keeping a close eye on the risk of them bursting their banks.

Several farmhouses near the riverbanks were also damaged.

A person who was delivering food to soldiers serving at the border was stranded in his vehicle due to overflowing river waters on his way back.

Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) teams rescued the driver, who could not escape from the water rising about one and a half meters, with the help of boats.

According to the latest weather report by the Meteorology Administration, yellow warnings were issued to 22 cities across the country and orange warnings to 14 cities.

The Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean, Central Anatolia, western and central Black Sea regions are expected to stay rainy and experience snow occasionally.

With the beginning of snowfall in the capital Ankara, there is a similar expectation for the weekend in Istanbul, according to the meteorologists.

While some parts of the country are struggling with rain and snow, air temperature above seasonal norms has been observed in the central Black Sea region.

The highest air temperature in the country was experienced in the Cide district of Kastamonu, with 28.8 degrees Celcius, followed by the Abana district, with 28.5 degrees Celcius.

In the eastern province of Erzurum, where the hottest winter season of the last 30 years was experienced, the villagers performed snow prayers.