August 24, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

Heavy rains on August 22 and 23 had caused flash flooding across the northern region, located in Turkey’s Black Sea Giresun province, which had claimed 6 lives and at least 12 others missing. At the hardest-hit town of Dereli, rainfalls swept away bridges and wrecked buildings, and reportedly 17 buildings had collapsed and 361 others were damaged.

So far, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) has announced that some 988 personnel and 288 vehicles were deployed to the rescue. They had closed the roads to 118 villages, but reopened 35 until now. Among 78 residential areas with power failure, 53 had been back to normal.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on August 23 that his government would quickly overcome the destruction by the heavy flood. Meanwhile, Turkey's Defense Ministry has launched an aircraft, Airbus A400M Atlas, to deliver rescue equipment and personnel.

According to Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli, they were making damage assessments and farmland damage had been less than estimated at the beginning. However, they had1.5 times of rainfall in Giresun, exceeding averages for August. 

Photo:Webshot.