Thursday 24 September 2015

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

16 comments:

  1. The beautiful Imre bookstore in Oasis - destroyed with all of its books. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153648594017556&set=pcb.10153648594952556&type=3&theater

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    1. I hope İmge Bookshop is insured and can get back on its feet again. It would be a great loss to Bodrum if it closes.

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  2. Remember that August day back in 1998, Helen and I were on holiday at the time in Bodrum.

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    1. I remember folk standing in the middle of the road in the roaring water, trying to catch tomatoes and aubergines as they swept past.

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  3. B to B, Yes, we've learned that where there's a will, there's a way to put up a construction be it illegal or not. Not that Americans can sniff at Turkey. We have big floods all the time due to paving over of natural water ways. Ultimately, as you point out and as a friend of mind likes to say, "Water Will Win".

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    1. Water doesn't like being diverted - it will always revert to the quickest way down.

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  4. So very sorry to hear it.. one can only hope lessons learned for future prevention, hope Bodrum is healing ok; cok selam ve sevgilerimle, Ozlem x

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    1. Clear up is well under way. Bodrum is very good at bouncing back.

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  5. I've experienced flash flooding in a couple of areas where we have lived here and really as you say, nature will take it's own course. When you have lived here for a long time you just get used to it. It floods..there is damage...you clean up.

    I do feel sorry for the people of Bodrum. But particularly for all the refugees. I hope they managed to find shelter and stay safe.

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  6. Dalyan went the same route by infilling and building over the drainage arıks. A couple of winters back the JCBs were frantically digging through gardens, roads and parks to reopen the waterways. Today? They are filled back in again or replaced by useless, little concrete pipes, most of which are blocked! Give me the track outside our house that does a great job of reverting to stream bed during heavy rain - never blocks and never gives a problem!

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  7. As we both know flash floods are nothing new for Bodrum for the reasons you've given. But to come so early and with such ferocity is unusual. It's wonder some of those houses clinging to the side of the hills didn't slide down with the mud. I assume our old stone cottage didn't stay dry either. I hear there were some injuries. I hope no one was seriously hurt.

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    1. AKUT were very good at rescuing those that got stuck in their cars

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  8. Our mad council is giving permission for building over a spring! Talk about asking for future trouble...

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  9. To learn from mistakes and experience would be just perfect wouldn't it, but like you said, get the building up and worry about it later. :(

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