Villages in Mesaoria region count the cost of flooding
THE Mesaoria is counting the cost after torrential rain hit the central plain and Gazimağusa on Tuesday, flooding land, homes and shops and cutting off roads.
The villages of Kırıkkale, Erdemli, Dilekkaya, Yiğitler and Vadili were worst hit, with reports of homes and farmland being left under water, furniture and food destroyed, poultry and other livestock killed and orchards, crops and livestock pens damaged.
Roads to Erdemli, between Dilekkaya and Kırıkkale and from İnönü to Vadili were closed after being overcome by floodwaters. Two vehicles were swept away by the water and their occupants rescued by municipal teams.
However reports that a Kırıkkale resident had been swept away by floodwater were refuted by authorities after a search by police and Civil Defence Organisation teams.
Villagers wept on Wednesday as they set about clearing homes and buildings of mud and the corpses of drowned livestock, while Değirmenlik Municipality stepped in to help with the clean-up and Agriculture Ministry and District Office officials toured the area to assess the damage. Farmers’ union leader Mustafa Naimoğulları urged authorities to compensate victims of the “natural disaster” without delay.
Drivers and passengers stuck in rising water also had to be rescued by firemen on Gazimağusa’s Ağustos 15 Bulvarı, among them a group of primary school children whose minibus became stranded in high water in front of the Canova petrol station.
Water was reported to have risen as high as a metre in flood-prone areas of the town after a half-hour downpour, provoking anger among householders and shopkeepers who complained they suffered in the same way every time there was heavy rain, but saw no precautionary measures being taken. One of them, Behiye Ülsol, said previous flooding had seen her unable to return home for a week and asked where she should go this time. She called on the authorities to compensate her for the damage.