KARS, Turkey – A heavy rainstorm over the weekend has caused severe flooding in the Kurdish city of Kars in northeast Turkey, with widespread damage being incurred to locals and their properties. More than a hundred houses are reported to have been flooded with locals decrying the government's apparent disregard for the situation, having failed to reach out to the affected neighborhood of Aydinlikevler. Bese Budak, a woman from the city, is one of many whose house has been severely damaged by the flooding in the neglected neighborhood. "We have put all of our equipment in the basement, but the floodwater came in and destroyed them all. Our food items are all gone. We have fallen victim [to this flood]. There is nothing left behind even to eat," she told Rudaw's Shawkat Harki. Locals attribute the devastation caused by the relentless floods to an inadequate water supply distribution network and an unstable drainage system leading to flooding as sewers often overflow. For some, this flood has damaged years of hard work and laid financial ruin to their savings. "You saw the scale of the damage that I have seen. I'm a hawker. I worked hard for years but this year the storm came and I now have nothing left behind," said Tehsin Karasu, another local whose livelihood has been left in disarray following the flooding. Locals say they have repeatedly warned the government about the issue of floods whenever there is heavy rainfall, but their calls for help have gone unanswered on multiple occasions.
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