Quote:AFTER THE FIRES: now flash floods ravage Turkey - stranding villagers on rooftops, sweeping away cars and triggering mudslides

Turkish rescuers evacuated a regional hospital on Wednesday and plucked stranded villagers off rooftops as flash floods and mudslides swept across the Black Sea coast.

From a meteorological point of view, we are perhaps facing a disaster that we had not seen in 50 or 100 years,' Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said of the flooding and heavy rains.

The downpours along Turkey's northern coast came as firefighters had just about got under control wildfires in the south that have killed eight people since late July.

Turkey has been grappling with drought and a rapid succession of natural disasters that world scientists believe are becoming more frequent and violent because of climate change.

Health Minsister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that a hospital holding 45 patients - four of them in intensive care - had been evacuated in the northern Sinop region because of flooding.

The local authority tweeted images of rescuers pulling dinghies carrying patients away from the hospital along flooded streets.

Images aired by the DHA news agency showed water covering the hospital's ground floor.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said water levels had reached three to four metres (10 to 13 feet) in some regions along the Black Sea coast.

Images on television and social media showed water level rising to the level of street signs in some towns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xks2bLgjLCs

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9884511/Flash-floods-wreak-havoc-Turkey.html