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Bad weather stops vehicles across the city and disrupts flights from the city’s largest metropolitan airport.
Istanbul, Turkey – Turkish authorities in Istanbul sent troops to clear the highways and ordered military helicopters to take the patients to the hospital, which is the largest in the country. the city was covered the transport was almost completely stopped in unusual snow.
The temporary ban on motorcycles and private vehicles went into effect on Tuesday morning, following a snowstorm the night before. Schools and shopping malls were also closed, with residents being asked to stay home amid warnings of freezing weather in the coming days.
“The main problem is not getting our citizens out on the streets as much as they can in these stormy conditions,” said Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. “We have areas where the snow has reached 80 centimeters (2.6 feet), and in most cities the snow has been 30-50 centimeters (1-1.5 feet),” Imamoglu added.
The main roads in Istanbul, including the northern highway that connects it to the main international airport, and the E-5 highway that runs from east to west through the city and the roads to the capital Ankara were closed at night. Authorities say thousands of drivers have been trapped on highways, and snow has risen rapidly as passengers were returning home during rush hour. The governor of Istanbul said there were 71 mosques they opened it to provide shelter for those who have stayed on the city roads.
“We had a very difficult night, and unfortunately, due to the snow and cold weather, people were stuck on the highways,” Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu told a news conference in Istanbul on Tuesday evening. Karaismailoglu said many drivers have left highways on the highways and are working to clean them up.
Drifting passengers
Monday’s bad weather was also fueled by the storm suspension flights from the city’s airport, one of the busiest in the world, as authorities tried to clear the runways to return hundreds of flights to a stopped schedule.
Although they opened a runway to manage flights that were later diverted due to snowfall, Turkish Airlines said its flights would not resume until at least midnight on Tuesday.
“Important authorities continue to work to make our airports and transportation ready for our flights,” Yahya Ustun, a spokesman for the airline, said on Twitter.
The airport, located on the shores of the Black Sea, north of Istanbul, opened in 2019 with a bang. Turkey was expected to be the largest in the world in the future, with more than 200 million passengers a year. Although only one terminal has been in operation so far, it handled more than 36 million passengers last year.
Although Monday night’s snowfall accidentally hit the airport, it quickly overflowed runways and ground transportation, leaving passengers stranded inside planes, on buses connecting to asphalt gates, as well as inside a huge terminal building.
Thousands of passengers spent the night at the terminal, and on Tuesday, airport officials handed out cardboard sheets and sandwiches.
The roof of a massive cargo terminal collapsed in the snow and opened without public transport links and severely cut off access to the airport, which is based entirely on buses and taxis, on Monday night.
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