Persistent snowfall leads to loss of 4 lives, curtails movement across Turkey

Snow and cold weather continue to adversely affect Turkey, with heavy snowfall leading to traffic accidents and the closure of many schools and roads in rural areas across the country on Friday, the Cihan news agency reported.

The heavy snow and cold weather that hit various parts of Turkey on Wednesday continued to affect schools, transport and daily life across the country.

A total of 348 villages in the Black Sea province of Rize were cut off from electricity throughout Friday. Two babies suffering from a high fever in the Yaylacık village of the province took six hours to get to Rize State Hospital after snow teams opened up the village road.

One hundred sixty-two village roads were closed in Balıkesir province on Thursday night, while snow reached depths of up to 40 centimeters in hilly districts of the city. The snow removal teams had worked to open the closed roads throughout Friday. The Balıkesir Meteorology Bureau stated that local snowfall would continue until Saturday.

A total of 118 village roads in southeastern Batman were closed as a result of heavy snowfall that began on Wednesday and continued with full force on Thursday night. Sixteen snow removal teams comprising 114 people worked throughout Friday to open the roads. The cold weather also hit the eastern province of Van as the roads of 976 villages were closed due to the snowfall. Snow reached depths of up to 50 centimeters in the higher elevations of the city.

The heavy snowfall continued to curtail daily life in Turkey's eastern provinces on Friday. A total of 1,306 villages' roads were closed as a result of persistent snowfall in Erzurum, Muş, Erzincan, Ağrı and Iğdır provinces. 

The snow reached depths of up to 75 centimeters at the Palandöken ski resort in Erzurum while temperatures fell to minus 12 degrees Celsius in the city center...
 todayszaman.com
1/1/16
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