AFAD President Okay Memiş: Search for 11 missing crew members continues with aircraft, helicopters, and UAVs

Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Durmuş Ünüvar, AFAD President Okay Memiş, and Zonguldak Governor Osman Hacıbektaşoğlu assessed the situation following the heavy rainfall and storm that occurred at the Karadeniz Ereğli port.

Recalling that floods and inundations occurred in Zonguldak and the Ereğli district as a result of extreme rainfall, AFAD President Memiş stated that a sad incident took place with the disappearance of the Turkish-flagged ship named Kafkametler.

Expressing that the state launched efforts with all its resources following the incident and that the lifeless body of one of the 12 missing crew members was found today, Memiş noted that search and rescue operations for the 11 missing crew members are continuing day and night.

Emphasizing that weather conditions were heavier than ever anticipated, Memiş said, "The storm turned into a hurricane, and the hurricane turned into an even more violent wind, almost like a 'tornado'. We had quite a hard time reaching the scene immediately both from the sea and from the land, but with the break of dawn, weather conditions improved slightly.

Currently, our search and rescue operations and efforts are continuing with all our teams, including AFAD teams, the Coast Guard, Coastal Safety, Ereğli Municipality, our Governorship, Special Provincial Administration, General Directorate of Forestry, Provincial Gendarmerie Command, Provincial Security Directorate, and the General Directorate of Highways. We are continuing our search and scanning activities without interruption in coordination with our Naval Forces Command," he said.

Reminding that there have been loss of lives across Turkey, Memiş said, "Unfortunately, 4 of our citizens lost their lives in Batman. 1 citizen lost their life in Diyarbakır. A total of 9 of our citizens have unfortunately lost their lives in the floods that have occurred since yesterday. Meanwhile, 225 reports were received in the district center, particularly regarding roofs being blown off.

We have determined that damage occurred in approximately 213 of our workplaces. There is also damage to 10 residences. In order to cover these damages in the first stage, an appropriation of 50 million liras was sent to the governorship upon the instruction of our Minister of Interior. Of course, no one should have any doubts about covering the damages of our citizens. As long as there is no loss of life. Hopefully, our state will cover the other damages as well," he said.

"WE WILL CONTINUE THE EFFORTS AS LONG AS WEATHER CONDITIONS PERMIT"

Stating that weather conditions are currently not suitable for search operations at sea, Memiş noted the following:

"However, we are continuing our efforts that we call 'scanning' from the land. Last night, weather conditions were much worse. Despite this, our teams—the AFAD teams, Coast Guard, Coastal Safety, gendarmerie, police, teams affiliated with the Naval Forces, and professional search and rescue teams that we just listed—did not actually pause the scanning activities. In other words, our land-based scanning activities continued.

However, it was not very possible to set sail or for a helicopter or aircraft to conduct search and rescue or scanning work in the air. But you saw the aircraft and helicopter during the daylight hours. UAVs are also scanning the region. As long as weather conditions permit, we will hopefully continue the search and rescue efforts again."

213 WORKPLACES DAMAGED

Explaining that they received a total of 310 reports, Memiş said, "However, the number of reports may increase and our threats continue. We have assessments we have made in hand. We have evaluated all of these reports and we call this the initial damage assessment. In the initial damage assessment, we personally identified 225 roof damages, 10 residential damages, and 213 workplace damages. We are making efforts to resolve these.

In other words, our citizens should rest assured that we will do our best to cover their damages. As AFAD, we are following meteorological data in real-time. The General Directorate of Meteorology shares it with us.

We also immediately share this data with all of Turkey. Meteorological officials and engineers make assessments at two different times during the day. According to the latest data, according to the latest sharing, there is no negative situation for this region for tomorrow and the day after.

In other words, the map looks green. All our citizens know this map now. There is no yellow or orange, or God forbid, red alert. For tomorrow and the day after, weather conditions in this region look suitable, at least in terms of precipitation," he assessed.

Emphasizing that the orange alert will continue in Van, Hakkari, and Şırnak in the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Memiş included the following statements:

"Such a situation is the case for tomorrow. In that region as well, all our friends, governors, district governors, gendarmerie, police, all units of the state, and all our ministries are at an alert level; all officials of all public institutions and organizations are at an alert level and are on high alert. Also, as you know, there are 200 thousand containers in the earthquake zone.

Approximately 620 thousand of our citizens live in containers. These are temporary accommodation places, as you know. Thank God, despite there being very heavy rainfall, we had a few isolated water inundations in our containers, but thank God we did not experience any major problems. I would like to express this as well."

GOVERNOR HACIBEKTAŞOĞLU: OUR SEARCH AND RESCUE EFFORTS FOR 11 SHIP PERSONNEL CONTINUE

Zonguldak Governor Osman Hacıbektaşoğlu also emphasized that they faced a storm in the central Zonguldak, Ereğli, Kozlu, and Kilimli districts.

Stating that 125 kilograms of precipitation per square meter fell in the Ereğli district and 85 kilograms per square meter in central Zonguldak, Governor Hacıbektaşoğlu said, "We experienced a storm event that was above a hurricane, especially in Ereğli, which has never been seen before. This caused very serious damage and led to floods.

With the effect of the wind, waves in the sea rose up to 8-9 meters. As a result, three of our ships were affected by this. Two of these affected ships were inside our Ereğli port. One of them suffered a breakdown. 13 crew members were rescued.

The other ship was towed and approached the pier safely. However, the Turkish-flagged ship named Kafkametler, which was anchored outside the Ereğli Port, outside the breakwater, unfortunately dragged its anchor and hit the port breakwater and suffered a breakdown," he said.

Hacıbektaşoğlu noted the following:

"From the moment the ship hit the rocks and suffered a breakdown, it has been under observation with all capabilities, including thermal cameras, night vision binoculars, and land surveillance by the Black Sea Regional Command and Coast Guard Command teams, despite visibility dropping below 25 meters, both with technical capabilities and human search and rescue capabilities. Of course, search and rescue efforts have been continuing uninterruptedly since that hour, as much as weather and sea conditions permit. In the morning hours, unfortunately, the lifeless body of one ship personnel, one of our crew members, was reached inside the port. Our search and rescue efforts for the other 11 ship personnel continue."

Explaining that search and rescue efforts have continued from the first moment as much as weather and sea conditions allowed, Hacıbektaşoğlu said, "Today, aerial search, scanning, and surveillance efforts continued with two patrol aircraft and one helicopter. Again, at sea, inside and outside the port, weather conditions were not very suitable for sea vehicles to move. Efforts continued with 4 boats. Currently, land-based efforts, surveillance efforts, and scanning efforts are continuing. These efforts will continue uninterruptedly. They will continue until we reach our 11 sailors, our 11 ship personnel," he said.

Governor Hacıbektaşoğlu noted that the damages of the affected tradespeople will be covered, and the 50 million liras transferred to the governorship will be deposited into the accounts of the affected citizens by Friday, or Monday at the latest.

Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Durmuş Ünüvar also stated that they estimate weather conditions will be more suitable tomorrow, that search and rescue efforts are continuing uninterruptedly, and that the damages of the affected citizens will be compensated.

News Source : İHA