The Aftermath - Recriminations and Blame

Photo from Daily Sabah Newspaper. Slideshow here

Insults are flying. Everyone is blaming the town council, developers, large hotel chains but when Geography and Mother Nature get together, there is not much mere human beings can do. Bodrum is and always has been in the bottom of a natural bowl surrounded by hills. Any water falling on the highland has to flow through the town into the sea.  Bodrumites are used to flooding as we live in a natural drain, but we are not used to it happening in the summer.  The last time I can remember a summer flood was in 1988. A sunny August day turned thundery and the ensuing downpour swept through the market and carried all the vegetable bobbing down the main road into the sea; the same main road that saw cars being tumbled about on Tuesday night. In those days we didn't have drainage channels, just dere sokağı,  streets that are really river beds.  Ill-advisedly, these River Roads - despite keeping their name - have been more and more treated as areas suitable for commerce and accommodation. If you live or work on a "River Road"  it should come as no surprise to you that during heavy rainfall your street will start to fill with water and as the rain gets heavier,  leaving a car parked in a dere sokağı is madness.  The above picture is the Oasis Shopping Mall. Built in the lee of hills but apparently with insufficient drainage for through water.  I hope the architects are bowing their heads.  The above mentioned authorities all have to bear their responsibilities as infrastructural planning is minimal, haphazard or non-existent but that is the way in this country; first get the building up and then worry about services, sewage and drainage.  Lots of those complaining and blaming, enjoy living or visiting Bodrum, but if the strict restrictions they are asking for had been enforced, their own hillside houses would never have been allowed to be built.  Rather than looking to blame, sometimes we just have to accept that when nature opens the tap or pulls the rug from under us, be it flood or earthquake, there is nothing we can do except clear up and start again. If we learn from the experience then all to the good, but don't hold your breath.

Other flood related posts Bodrum Rain stopped play