Symbolic imageIstanbul flood death toll rises to three, four missing
Record rain flooded Istanbul this week, and the governor's office said on Thursday that three people had died and four were missing.
The dead include a 14-year-old boy electrocuted after stepping into a puddle in Fatih and a 34-year-old who slipped in Sarıyer and hit their head. A man's body found near Sadabad Park in Kağıthane was still being identified. Beykoz recorded 269.5 mm of rain between midnight Tuesday and 7:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the city's disaster coordination centre. Governor Davut Gul called it the highest precipitation since records began in 1942, while the municipality said some areas saw their highest since 1985. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said 2,727 people had been evacuated in Istanbul and 46,597 personnel were deployed there.
Roads, hospitals and a mosque hit
Al Jazeera, citing local reports, says roads collapsed in Eyüpsultan and Gaziosmanpaşa and floodwater reached two hospitals and a metro station. Daily Sabah reports that the Kağıthane Stream overflowed and flooded the historic Sadabad Mosque. Schools in Istanbul were closed for two days, Çiftçi said.
Planning blamed for damage
Istanbul Technical University meteorologist Mikdat Kadıoğlu told Daily Sabah that a scientific attribution study would be needed to link the rain to climate change. He argued that construction in streambeds and inadequate infrastructure worsened the damage: "Rain is natural; disaster is man-made."
Other opinions
Reports differ on air travel: The National cites the governor on 51 diverted and 19 cancelled flights at Istanbul Airport, while Al Jazeera, citing Daily Sabah, says flights ran normally.