Heavy snow and cold taking toll on Turkey

ISTANBUL

Students in numerous districts and villages in provinces of Kırşehir, Konya, Uşak, Zonguldak and Erzurum were given the day off yesterday due to the weather conditions. AA photo

Adverse weather conditions that have wreaked havoc across Turkey are set to continue, meteorologists have warned amid widespread school closures yesterday and a disruption of access to countless villages due to heavy snowfall.

Students in numerous districts and villages in the Central Anatolian provinces of Kırşehir, Konya, Aksaray, Yozgat and Uşak, as well as the Black Sea province of Zonguldak and the eastern province of Erzurum, were given the day off due to the weather conditions.

Many schools in the Black Sea province of Ordu, the eastern provinces of Bingöl and Muş, the northern province of Tokat and the Central Anatolian province of Sivas also suspended their classes for two days. Other schools in the northern province of Çorum, the Central Anatolian province of Nevşehir and the Black Sea province of Samsun have also been temporarily shut down, according to reports.
Meteorology officials warned yesterday of ice and frost throughout Turkey, while hundreds of villages have been cut off due to excessive snowfall. More than 500 village roads in Muş and the adjacent province of Bitlis were entirely clogged by snow, while roughly 200 villages in the Central Anatolian province of Yozgat alone were isolated due to the weather.

Access to 93 villages was also blocked by snow in Ankara, which was the site of numerous accidents on account of the poor road conditions, according to reports.

Another 381 villages in Erzurum also lost their connection to the downtown area, while the Sivas-Erzincan highway in eastern Turkey was also closed down.

Hundreds of vehicles on the Ağrı-Van highway in the east were reportedly stuck in the area after an avalanche shut the road down.

Worsening weather conditions struck Istanbul and other major cities in the industrialized northwestern Marmara region over the weekend, causing massive disruptions in the provision of electricity, natural gas and transportation services.

Compiled from daily Hürriyet, Doğan news agency and Anatolia news agency stories by the Daily News staff in Istanbul.