Turkish Quake Zone Hit by Flash Floods Resulting in 14 Fatalities

On Wednesday, flash floods caused the deaths of at least 14 individuals who were residing in tents and container homes across the earthquake-affected region of Turkey. This unfortunate incident adds further challenges for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the critical elections. According to officials, several other people were also carried away by the rapidly flowing water, which transformed the streets into muddy streams in areas that were affected by a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 that occurred last month. This disaster, which happened on February 6, was the most fatal in modern times for the region, resulting in the deaths of over 48,000 people in Turkey and almost 6,000 in Syria

Hundreds of thousands of Turkish quake survivors have been moved into tents and container homes across the disaster region, which covers 11 provinces across Turkiye’s southeast

Torrential rains hit the area on Tuesday and the weather service expected them to last until late Wednesday

Turkish officials said the floods killed 12 people in Sanliurfa, about 50 km north of the Syrian border

Two people, including a one-year-old, also died in nearby Adiyaman, where five remain unaccounted for

Images showed the waters sweeping away cars and flooding temporary housing set up for earthquake victims

In one viral video, a man dressed in a beige suit and tie reaches out for help while floating down a surging stream alongside a piece of furniture. His fate remains unknown

Other images showed people pulling victims out of the water with branches and rope

The Sanliurfa governor’s office said the flooding also reached the ground floor of one of the region’s main hospitals

Facing a difficult reelection on May 14, Erdogan is confronting a furious public backlash over his government’s stuttering response to the biggest natural disaster of his two-decade rule

Erdogan has issued several public apologies while also stressing that no nation could have dealt quickly with a disaster of such scale

Erdogan has spent the past few weeks touring the region, meeting survivors and promising to rebuild the entire area within a year

“By the end of next year, we will build 319,000 houses,” Erdogan told his ruling party members on Wednesday in a parliamentary address

“Beyond the search and rescue, emergency aid and temporary shelter we have provided so far, we have a promise to our nation to restore the cities destroyed in the earthquake within a year,” he said

Erdogan dispatched his interior minister to the flooded region to oversee the government’s response

“Currently, we have 10 teams composed of 163 people doing search and rescue work across a 25-km stretch,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said

“We also have divers. But the weather conditions are not allowing us to do much,” he said