As authorities declared wildfires under control, flash floods swept through towns in the Turkish Black Sea region have killed 62 people, authorities said on Sunday, in the second natural disaster to strike Turkey this month.
The Turkish disaster agency AFAD said 52 people were killed in the province of Kastamonu, nine in Sinop and one in Bartin.
According to a statement by the governor’s office in Bartin, 13 bridges were destroyed in the flood, while at least 45 buildings were heavily damaged.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 77 people were still missing in the flooding. Eight remained hospitalized.
The floods brought chaos to northern provinces just as authorities were declaring wildfires had been brought under control after raging through southern coastal regions for two weeks.
Drone footage by Reuters showed massive damage in the town of Bozkurt in Kastamonu province. Emergency workers were searching demolished buildings for the missing.
Torrents of water tossed dozens of cars and heaps of debris along streets, destroyed buildings and bridges closed roads, and cut off electricity to hundreds of villages.
More than 2,000 people were evacuated from affected areas, some with the help of helicopters and boats, AFAD said.
“This is the worst flood disaster I have seen,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu had told reporters late on Thursday after surveying the damage that extended across the provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, and Sinop.
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