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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that all state institutions are working in coordination to manage flooding in Istanbul and Antalya, and warned that heavy rain will continue in parts of Türkiye through Friday as Istanbul cleans up after the heaviest rainfall recorded in the city in more than eight decades.
Speaking at an unrelated event in Ankara, Erdogan said disaster agency AFAD and other institutions are issuing warnings to residents while taking measures on the ground.
“We ask our people to closely follow the warnings of our official institutions so that new problems can be prevented,” he said.
He offered condolences for three people who had died, a figure that matched Istanbul’s toll announced earlier in the day. Reports later Thursday evening raised that toll to four.
Rain that began Wednesday morning intensified through the evening and night.
Istanbul Governor Davut Gul said the Beykoz district recorded 261 kilograms of rain per square meter, the most in Istanbul since the Meteorological Directorate began measurements in 1942. The previous high was close to 200, he said.
Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci put the peak at up to 272 in places.
Streams overflowed, including the Kagithane, and floodwater swept vehicles away in the Ayazaga neighborhood of Sariyer, where about 200 workers were stranded in offices on Kemerburgaz Avenue before being evacuated.
A retaining wall collapsed in Ortakoy and part of a road gave way in Eyupsultan. Traffic congestion reached 89 percent Wednesday evening. Gul said 19 flights at Istanbul Airport were canceled and 51 diverted.
Ciftci said Istanbul recorded 8,815 emergency calls, and Gul said 3,050 people had been rescued and no one was still waiting to be reached. A total of 46,597 personnel were deployed in the city.
The dead include a 14-year-old boy electrocuted in a puddle in Fatih, a 34-year-old man who fell in floodwater in Ayazaga, a man whose body was found at the Kagithane stream, and a worker who fell into a well while pumping water at a school construction site in Beykoz.
Gul said five people have been reported missing and searches continue. Seven people treated in hospitals have been discharged.
Some Ayazaga residents complained Thursday morning that no officials had reached them overnight.
Gul said damage assessments began Thursday and should be completed by Monday, with payments to affected residents starting as early as Friday afternoon and no later than Monday.
He said Erdogan had given a “firm instruction” that the state would not “allow any of our fellow citizens to be left out in the open.”
About 900 AFAD volunteers will join cleanup work from Friday, starting in Sariyer, and vacuum trucks and other vehicles are arriving from other provinces.
Schools in Istanbul are closed Thursday and Friday for inspections, with classes due to resume Monday. A temporary motorcycle ban will end at 6 a.m. Friday.
Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said judicial investigations have been opened and are examining the incidents, including any negligence.
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Gul said rain could continue for two to three more days and that the soil is saturated, advising residents to stay home unless necessary.
Ciftci said up to 100 to 120 kilograms per square meter is expected in places around Istanbul, Kocaeli, Bursa, Yalova, Bilecik, Sakarya and Duzce. Schools will close for a day in Kocaeli, Zonguldak, Sakarya, Duzce and Yalova.
The Meteorological Directorate issued yellow warnings for 42 provinces and orange warnings for six on Wednesday and Thursday.
In Antalya, flooding hit the Demre district on Wednesday. Rescuers evacuated 22 people, including 13 students and seven teachers stranded at a school and two people in a greenhouse. Demre Mayor Fahri Duran said four villages had not seen such rain in 100 years.
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