At least nine individuals were killed, and over 1,750 residences and places of business in Istanbul were damaged.
A total of nine individuals have been killed as a result of flash floods caused by torrential rainfall in Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. These floods converted rivers into floods, washed away bridges and roads, and homes, submerged streets, and government buildings.
Vassilis Kikilias, Greece’s minister for climate disaster and public protection, stated after an urgent cabinet session that this is the most catastrophic phenomenon in terms of the largest quantity of rain that fell in a single day since statistics began being kept in the country.
A flood ripped through a campground in the northwest province of Kirklareli in Turkey, which is close to its border with Bulgaria. Six vacationers were swept off in the raging water. Tuesday evening saw the discovery of two bodies, and early Wednesday morning brought the discovery of a third body.
Over a dozen individuals were on the property enjoying their vacation when the floods struck and swept away numerous cottages, according to the authorities. They said that the hunt for the three tourists who went missing during their vacation was ongoing and unabated.
Rescue workers were seen in footage shown on Turkish television taking a young girl as well as a grown-up to safety from floodwaters that reached up to their waists in certain parts of the neighborhood. According to Haberturk TV, the rains also caused damage to a primary road, which resulted in the route having to be closed.
In addition, there were two persons who lost their lives in Istanbul. After being trapped within a flooded city library, approximately a dozen individuals had to be saved, and several subway lines had to be shut down as a result.
The nocturnal storm, which came after an exceptionally dry summer, submerged roads and railways and swept away automobiles and vendors in the city. It also occurred after an extremely dry summer.
One of those killed in Istanbul was a Guinean national who was 32 years old and had been trapped in an apartment on the bottom floor in the Kucukcekmece neighborhood. In another area, people eating at a restaurant were forced to take refuge on the roof as the water level rose.
According to the administration of the governor, the rising flood waters damaged over 1,750 residences and companies in the city. They featured a stretch of businesses in the Ikitelli region, where the deluge pulled dirt and parked automobiles into furniture stores. These shops were part of the Ikitelli shopping district.
One person was killed and five others went unaccounted for after a wall fell on top of them in the Greek town of Volos, which is located on the eastern coast of the country. According to reports from the local media, at least six settlements in and close to the eastern Pelion mountainous region sustained significant damage.
Rockfalls obstructed highways, a tiny bridge was demolished, and electricity service was disrupted in many regions. Streams spilled their banks and swept cars into the ocean. Both a hospital and a nursing home in the city of Volos were forced to be evacuated after being impacted by flooding.
One village on Pelion reported 750.4 millimeters of rainfall in twenty-four hours, which is comparable to the average yearly rainfall of roughly 400 millimeters in the Athens region. This information was provided by the National Meteorological Office.
According to the meteorologist Panagiotis Giannopoulos, who was interviewed by the broadcasting company ERT, “the quantity of water that rained in 24 hours is exactly the same as the typical rainfall for the entire season of autumn.”
Savvas Karagiannis, a representative for Fraport, a German corporation that administers Greece’s local airports, told AFP that the police have barred travel to Volos, several Pelion communities, and the neighboring island of Skiathos since planes are unable to reach the airport due to the floods.
A variety of mobile phone notifications were also sent out by the government to residents in other regions of central Greece, including the Sporades islands, as well as the island of Evia outside Athens, advising them to restrict their time spent outside as much as possible.
The torrential downpour in Greece comes after a series of fierce wildfires during the summer that murdered over twenty individuals. One of the deadliest of these flames was a big inferno that had been burning since August 19 and has damaged large sections of the Dadia National Park within the northern Evros area.
The inferno, which has now been brought under control, was designated as a “megafire” and was responsible for the destruction of 81,000 acres (200,155 acres) of woodland that was safeguarded by the European organization Natura 2000. This is almost half of the entire area that has been consumed by flames in Greece from the beginning of the summer.
While recognizing that his center-right administration “clearly failed to handle matters as well as we would’ve liked” on the wildfires front, the prime minister of the Greek, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, attributed the flames and storms to the effects of climate change. Mitsotakis was also quick to point the finger at global warming.
On Tuesday, Mitsotakis was quoted as saying, “I am worried that the carefree summertime, as we knew them… will no longer exist,” and that from this point forward, it is anticipated that the summers would become increasingly challenging.
After a storm triggered flooding on the southern Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, the country’s Prime Minister, Nikolay Denkov, stated on Tuesday that two people had perished and three others had vanished as a result of the flooding. Bulgaria is located further to the north.
Bridges and roads were severely damaged as a result of rivers that had overflowed their banks. In addition, there were power outages in the region, and authorities cautioned people not to drink water from the tap because flood waters had contaminated the water supply.
The worst-affected southern tourist town of Tsarevo was depicted on television showing vehicles, including cars and camping vans, being carried out to sea. Because the lower floors of certain hotels were flooded, the authorities in Tsarevo proclaimed a state of national emergency and asked residents to transfer to higher floors of their accommodations.
