“I’m sitting on the Titanic, counting lightning”: the west of Istanbul has become an aquarium

Social networks and news are replete with reports and footage of a terrible flood in Istanbul: cars got stuck in flooded tunnels, buildings are in water up to the third floors, a hospital and a number of other city institutions are forced to stop working. However, both Turkish travel agencies and Russian tourists and relocators who are in the flooded Turkish metropolis right now, assure that “the scale of the disaster is greatly exaggerated.”

We asked those who see the truth from the inside in the truest sense of the word – the inhabitants of the flooded areas of the city.

“In the city center and in places where tourists usually go, it didn’t even rain, so they don’t deceive you, they just don’t know you,” says Yasmin, 42, a resident of Istanbul’s Basaksehir district, which took the brunt of the elements. – The forecast may have been, but we have not heard. On Tuesday evening we were visiting relatives here across the street. At about 9 pm, when we were just about to go home, it started to rain. We made it in time, but the other family couldn’t get into the subway, the streams of water poured right in, it was impossible even to approach. Taxi, too, in our area could not pass. And they returned back to where they were visiting. There is the 7th floor, everything is fine, only there has been no electricity on our street for 24 hours. But we do not complain until the water is pumped out, let it not be better, otherwise it is dangerous.

According to Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, the districts of Basaksehir and Arnavutköy received a record amount of rainfall (more than 125 mm per square meter), while in other parts of the city there was no rain at all. And in the west of Istanbul, which took the storm, on Wednesday afternoon they continued to pump out water and urgently put in order the affected urban facilities – a hospital, subway, library, shopping center and residential buildings. According to the authorities, it was not possible to save three local residents, they were carried away by streams along with cars. Another 12 people were hospitalized in areas of the metropolis that were not affected by the downpour, in total about 3 thousand buildings were damaged, most of them residential buildings. The hospital and the library and Basaksehir suffered the most, they actually went under water. In the latter, several students were even blocked by a wall of precipitation, but they managed to get through to the rescue service and were pulled out with the help of fire equipment. The Istanbul authorities promised to pay $560 in compensation to all families whose homes and property were damaged by the flood.

“My sister lives in Kucukcekmece,” says Sezen, who lives near Taksim Square. – We didn’t even have rain, on Wednesday morning my children and I were even going to go to the islands to swim, the weather was so good. But then the husband heard on the news that Küçükçekmece had gone under water during the night. I’d rather call my sister, she doesn’t answer her mobile, they don’t have electricity, it turns out that everything is dead. Well, we went there ourselves, although it is now forbidden to travel to flooded areas. The gendarme stopped at the entrance, but as soon as I told about my sister, he immediately waved his hand – drive through, of course. Here, people understand what relatives in trouble are. With my sister, thank God, everything turned out to be all right. The area is being tidied up, you can drive through. But she said terrible things. In their area, the basement of the house where the family lived with children was flooded, they were all sitting at home, in the evening. And as water flowed under the door, they tried to get out, and from everywhere water was already rising, as they got into the aquarium.

According to Sezen, the family was saved: the neighbors helped. While the men were trying to get into the flooded basement themselves, the women found a place where there was a connection (because of the downpour, the signal of the cellular operator was not caught by the wall everywhere in the area), and called rescuers.

– My sister says that she sat in a dark apartment on her 12th floor from horror and counted lightning flashes. I sit, he says, as if on the bow of the sinking Titanic. And there were somehow incredibly many lightnings, she counted about 300 discharges per hour. And our mayor, it turns out, counted even more – 1,500 blows in 2 hours, this was later told in the news.

– It’s amazing that some Istanbulites don’t know at all!

– It’s just that Istanbul is very big and elongated. In the west, where the flood is, new areas, spacious but purely bedroom, there are no sights, nothing of particular importance or ancient. It’s good that the houses there are mostly high, otherwise more people would have suffered. We ourselves do not go to these remote areas without need, and tourists even more so. And even some of my friends do not know about the flood at all. My friend lives in the Fatih district, they had only two drops of rain, she didn’t even notice. She basically doesn’t watch TV, she doesn’t read the news on her phone, so I told her about the flood. She was so surprised: how is it, she says, the sun is scorching through my window. Maybe I wouldn’t know if it wasn’t for my sister. And it’s even good, why scare ordinary people. Those who can help are in the know and on the ground. And now we are collecting help at home for the affected families, who can do what – clothes, gifts for children, money. Just like that, on my own.