Istanbul flood death toll rises to eight after record rainfall; one person missing

The death toll from last week's floods in Istanbul rose to eight on Monday, October 19, Istanbul Governor Davut Gül said, according to the German agency DPA and Turkish Minute. Six people died in Istanbul and two in neighbouring Kocaeli province, whose bodies were carried into Istanbul's Pendik district and recovered there. One person was still missing. The floods followed torrential rain on the night of Wednesday, October 14, which officials described as the heaviest in Turkey's largest city in more than 80 years.

How the toll rose

The day after the downpour, the Istanbul governor's office reported three deaths and four people missing, the Associated Press reported. According to the AP, the dead included a 14-year-old who was electrocuted after stepping into a puddle in a park in Fatih district and a 34-year-old who slipped on a pavement in Sarıyer and struck their head, as reported by local media; a third body was found near a park in Kağıthane.

Turkish Minute, citing the state-run Anadolu agency, reported that a fourth body was recovered on Friday and a fifth on Sunday, both men, in the Golden Horn, and that the body of a missing man was later found near the Ayvansaray ferry pier on the Golden Horn. Turkish Minute's report on Thursday had said five people were missing; the AP's count that day was four.

How much rain fell

The figures given for the scale of the rain changed as data came in. On October 15 the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said some areas had received the most rain since 1985, without giving totals, according to the AP. DPA later reported that the disaster coordination centre AKOM recorded 277.1 millimetres in one day in Beykoz district, the most since 1942. Turkish Minute described the rain as the heaviest since records began in 1942.

The AP reported that homes, businesses, roads and underpasses flooded and vehicles were stranded. Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi said more than 2,700 stranded people were evacuated. In Sakarya province, about 150 km east of Istanbul, a two-storey house built on a riverbed collapsed, the AP reported, citing HaberTurk television.

Damage and compensation

Sarıyer was the hardest-hit district, DPA reported. The two reports read give slightly different damage figures, both attributed to the governor:

• DPA: about 3,000 flats and business premises badly damaged.
• Turkish Minute: around 2,000 homes and about 900 businesses seriously damaged, out of about 19,300 reports of damage and other problems.

Each affected resident is receiving 10,000 lira (about $200), Turkish Minute reported, with 5,200 people paid on Friday and another 2,500 due to be paid on Monday. DPA said tens of thousands of emergency workers had been deployed and clean-up work was continuing.

Disruption and warnings

The governor's office closed schools through Friday, placed some state employees on leave and advised residents to stay home unless travel was essential, the AP reported. Motorcycles were barred from traffic on Wednesday night. Turkey's weather agency forecast more showers for Istanbul and the surrounding area in the following days.

Building on riverbeds

Gül said illegal buildings on riverbeds could be demolished, DPA reported. The Istanbul Chamber of Urban Planners called for flood zones to be kept free of buildings and for streambeds that have been covered over to be reopened, saying that sealed ground prevents rainwater from draining away, according to DPA.