Istanbul’s governor called the downpour the city’s worst in 84 years, and the toll is already human as well as material. A 14-year-old boy died after stepping into an electrified puddle in the Balat neighbourhood of Fatih; a 34-year-old man slipped while crossing a flooded street and struck his head. An investigation into the teenager’s death is open.
City tallies list 1,277 flood incidents and 15 landslides. Roughly 800 homes, 280 businesses and 76 vehicles were hit. Deputy mayor Nuri Aslan said 595 people were moved to safety while more than 8,000 staff and about 2,000 vehicles and machines worked the streets. Interior officials noted some districts received rainfall equal to about one seventh of a normal year in a short burst.
Ömerli in Beykoz recorded nearly 194 millimetres; elsewhere close to 100 millimetres fell in twelve hours. Floodwater entered two hospitals and the Hacıosman metro station. Road sections collapsed in Eyüpsultan and Gaziosmanpaşa, and a primary-school retaining wall fell in Sultangazi while classes were inside — without pupil injuries reported.
Governor Davut Gül urged residents to stay home unless travel was essential, avoid basements and creek beds, and leave motorcycles parked under a temporary ban. Schools are shut Thursday and Friday. Metro hours stretch to 02:00 to cut car traffic, and selected public employees received leave.
Some 16 million people live in the wider metro area. The episode underlines how quickly a dense coastal megacity can stall when underpasses fill and power meets standing water — and why overnight storm warnings now come with shelter and leave policies attached.
