Flash flooding in Turkey has killed at least 14 people after torrential rains hit two provinces devastated by last month’s earthquake.
At least five other people were also reported missing, officials and media reported Wednesday.
The horrific weather has added to the misery for thousands left homeless following last month’s devastating magnitude-7.8 earthquake that killed some 52,000 people in the country and Syria – the region’s deadliest in modern times. time.
Many of those killed in the floods lived in tents and container homes in the quake-hit southeast of Turkey, according to media reports.
Torrential downpours hit the area late Tuesday and the weather service expects them to continue late into Wednesday.
Shocking images of the rushing water showed helpless victims being dragged away as cars were carried through the water over roads that had turned into streams.
Rescue team carries out evacuation operation for civilians after the devastating downpour hit the town of Sanliurfa
Several people were swept away by the rushing water, turning streets into muddy rivers in areas hit last month.
A man was filmed being helplessly dragged through the rushing murky water, unable to stop himself as he sailed down a road in the town of Sanliurfa.
Other horror footage showed the water sweeping away cars and flooding temporary homes for earthquake victims.
Hundreds of thousands of Turkish earthquake survivors have been housed in tents and container homes in the disaster area, which spans 11 provinces.
One person was killed in the town of Tut in southeastern Adiyaman province after rising waters swept away a container house used to shelter a family of earthquake survivors.
It was later reported that a one-year-old had died in the disaster.
Salih Ayhan, the governor of the neighboring province of Sanliurfa, about 50 kilometers north of the Syrian border, told Turkish television that four people have died in the flooding in his region.
Rescuers later found five more bodies of Syrian nationals in a flooded basement apartment in Sanliurfa, Turkish news agency DHA reported.
Two more deaths were later reported.
Cars and debris were scattered during flooding after heavy rains and flooding in Sanliurfa
Turkish soldiers and rescue team carry out evacuation operation for civilians in Sanliurfa
Police divers, known as ‘frogmen’, conduct search and rescue operations at the flooded intersection after a downpour hits Sanliurfa
Turkish police are conducting search and rescue operations in the flooded area
A view of the floodwaters in Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey, after flash floods killed at least 10 people living in tents and containers
Turkish soldiers and rescue team carry out evacuation operation with boats and heavy machinery for civilians
Rescuers on boats save people from the rushing water in the devastated Sanliurfa region
People are rescued during flooding on an excavator after heavy rains in Sanliurfa killed 13 people
Three people remain missing in Adiyaman and two in Sanliurfa, local reports said.
Several people were evacuated from a soggy campsite where earthquake survivors sheltered in tents.
Flooding also reached the ground floor of one of the region’s main hospitals, the Sanliurfa governor’s office said.
Turkey’s disaster relief agency said more than a dozen professional divers were involved in the rescue efforts in each of the two provinces.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck parts of Turkey and Syria on February 6, killing more than 52,000 people – the vast majority in Turkey. More than 200,000 buildings in Turkey collapsed or were severely damaged.
Facing a tough reelection in May, President Erdogan is now facing a furious public backlash over his government’s stuttering response to the worst natural disaster of his 20-year rule.
Erdogan has issued several public apologies, while also stressing that no country could have responded so quickly to a disaster of this magnitude.
Erdogan has been touring the region in recent weeks, meeting survivors and promising to rebuild the entire area within a year.
Members of the police and rescue team carry the body of a person during flooding after heavy rains in Sanliurfa
Turkish soldiers and rescue team carry out evacuation operation with boats
Turkish soldiers on a boat rescue an elderly man from the torrential weather amid the floods
Civilians are evacuated by boats from Akabe district due to flash floods
Heavy rains caused flooding in Adiyaman and Sanliurfa, which were hit by Turkey’s earthquakes last month
Turkish police developers known as ‘frogmen’ conduct search and rescue operations at the flooded intersection after a downpour hits Sanliurfa
Turkish soldiers and rescue team carry out evacuation operations in the devastated region
A man is pulled into a wheelchair as civilians evacuated from Akabe district due to flash flooding in Sanliurfa
Turkish soldiers and rescue teams carry children as they continue an evacuation operation for civilians in Sanliurfa
“We will build 319,000 houses by the end of next year,” Erdogan said in a parliamentary speech to his governing party members on Wednesday.
“In addition to the search and rescue, emergency response and temporary shelter we have provided to date, we have a commitment to our nation to restore the earthquake-devastated cities within a year,” he said.
Erdogan sent his interior minister to the flooded area to oversee the government’s response.
“Currently, we have 10 teams of 163 people doing search and rescue over a 25-kilometer stretch,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters.
We also have divers. But due to the weather conditions we can’t do much,” he said.