HUGE DAMAGE
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Partially submerged vehicles are seen after heavy rains in Istanbul September 9, 2009. [Agencies]
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Insurance company Axa Sigorta Deputy General Manager Ali Erlat said damage from the floods could total $70 million-$80 million, the state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
Public Works Minister Mustafa Demir, who toured the worst hit areas, said there was "huge damage to infrastructure."
Ali Erdem, chief analyst at the Istanbul Meteorology Department, told Reuters Tuesday's rainfall was the heaviest recorded in the last 80 years.
The bodies of seven women were discovered in Bagcilar, a working-class suburb of Istanbul, on Wednesday. They had drowned in a minibus that was taking them to jobs at a textile factory, Anatolian said.
Istanbul is situated on the steep banks of the Bosphorus strait, which divides Europe from Asia and is one of the world's busiest waterways -- a major conduit for cargo ships and oil tankers passing between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Elsewhere in northwest Turkey, two bridges were demolished by floodwaters on the Bahcekoy-Saray highway.
Istanbul authorities have been more occupied in their disaster planning with making provisions for earthquakes in a city crossed by a major faultline. A quake killed 18,000 people in northwest Turkey in 1999.
