Flash floods caused by heavy rains that hit Turkey’s northern Ordu province damaged 66 houses and 264 shops, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Thursday, citing the country’s vice president.
Speaking to reporters in Ordu, Vice President Fuat Oktay said the rains also damaged 60 vehicles.
“At the moment, we don’t have any casualties or residents who are in need or whose needs have not been met,” Oktay said.
“The climate has been changing … and so we also need a change of mindset,” Oktay said.
According to a Cumhuriyet daily report, Oktay also said the effects of the disaster were not “as exaggerated as in the media.”
Heavy rains in the Black Sea province of Ordu damaged nearly 100 neighborhoods, affecting half a million people, the Ordu city mayor said.
Torrential downpours starting Wednesday afternoon caused landslides and flooding in the region, especially in the Fatsa and Ünye districts, during which eight bridges collapsed and tons of hazelnuts grown in the area washed into the Black Sea.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy Cemal Enginyurt, on the other hand, blamed the Ordu Municipality, which is run by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), for failing to take measures for such heavy rains.
Locals in Ordu were mainly concerned about a number of recently built hydroelectric power plants.