In Turkey's
earthquake-affected region, flash floods on Wednesday claimed the lives of at
least 14 people who were living in tents and shipping containers, adding to the
pressure on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before crucial elections.
According to
officials, many people were lost in the raging flood that turned roadways into
muddy rivers in the districts affected by last month's 7.8-magnitude
earthquake.
The disaster on
February 6 killed more than 48,000 people in Turkey and about 6,000 in Syria,
making it the deadliest incident in the area in recent times.
Tents and container
homes have been erected for hundreds of thousands of Turkish earthquake
survivors throughout the disaster area, which includes 11 provinces in the
southeast of Turkey.
The weather service
predicted that the area would experience torrential rain through late Wednesday.
Twelve people were
reportedly killed by floods in Sanliurfa, Turkey, which is 50 kilometres north
of the Syrian border.
A one-year-old and
another person perished in nearby Adiyaman, where five others are still
missing.
Pictures showed the
water engulfing temporary homes built for earthquake victims and carrying away
cars.
In one popular video,
a man wearing a beige suit and tie calls out for assistance as he floats down a
fast-moving stream next to some furniture. His fate is still a mystery.
In other pictures,
individuals could be seen using rope and branches to pull victims out of the
river.
One of the biggest
hospitals in the area's ground floor was also affected by the flooding,
according to the Sanliurfa governor's office.
Erdogan is facing a
fierce public backlash over his government's bungled response to the largest
natural disaster of his two-decade rule as he prepares to run for reelection on
May 14.
Erdogan has made
multiple public apologies while reiterating that no country could have
responded to the crisis in a timely manner.
Erdogan has been
traveling the area over the past three weeks, visiting with survivors, and
making promises to reconstruct the entire region within a year.
Erdogan announced in a
parliamentary speech on Wednesday that his government will construct 319,000
homes by the end of the year.
"We have a
promise to our nation to repair the cities destroyed by the earthquake within a
year," he continued, in addition to the search and rescue, emergency aid,
and temporary shelter we have so far supplied.
In order to direct the
government's response, Erdogan sent his interior minister to the area that had
been inundated.