Within the scope of the Türkiye Disaster Response Plan (TAMP), the drill was carried out in Taşlıdere Creek, Ardeşen Fırtına Creek and İyidere Creek connected to the center, in accordance with the scenario prepared based on the disasters experienced in our province before.
According to the scenario, as of 09.00:213.6, the Provincial Directorate of Meteorology informed that an average of XNUMX kg/m² of precipitation fell in our province, and Governor İhsan Selim Baydaş instructed the members of the Disaster and Emergency Coordination Board, TAMP Authorities and AYDES Users to gather at the Provincial AFAD Center.
The coordination board convened at the Provincial Disaster and Emergency Management Center with the participation of provincial and regional administrators under the presidency of Governor Baydaş. A presentation was made regarding hydrometeorological disasters and measures taken in Rize province. The meeting was held with the participation of AFAD President Ali Hamza Pehlivan via Video Conference management.
According to the scenario, the first situation briefing was given. Search and rescue activities were initiated in Fırtına Deresi and İyidere. The work was followed by a live connection from the Fırtına Deresi and İyidere locations where search and rescue activities were carried out.
112 personnel from AFAD, Coast Guard, JAK, AKUT, 500 Emergency Health and civil society search and rescue teams from Rize, Artvin and Trabzon provinces took part in the exercise.
In the drill in Taşlıdere Creek, as per the scenario, a car with 1 person inside fell into the creek after being swept away by flood waters due to heavy rainfall. It was determined that one person was trapped inside the car.
The teams that intervened in the incident in a short time rescued the person in the car, and the other vehicle that was swept away by the water was pulled out of the water with the help of a work machine after the diver teams located the vehicle. The exercise was as real as it gets.
Rize Governor İhsan Selim Baydaş made a statement to the press members after the drill, saying, “Rize is the province that receives the most rainfall in Türkiye. Therefore, it is exposed to disasters in terms of floods, inundations and landslides. We carried out this drill in order to see what our capacity and possibilities are in this respect, and what our shortcomings are, if any.
With the participation of all our institutions and all volunteer search and rescue teams, we successfully carried out a very large exercise with over 500 personnel, land, sea and air vehicles, dozens of vehicles and equipment, without any accidents or trouble. We are in a region that is exposed to floods and inundations and must be prepared for them at all times. The purpose of these is to determine how well all our teams' reflexes are. Summer is a rainy season for us. We are entering a rainy season. I pray to God that we will go through it without any accidents or trouble. God willing, we will complete this season without any loss of life or disaster. However, we have also tested and seen today that all our public institutions and organizations are ready under the coordination of AFAD in the event of a possible disaster, such as a flood, overflow or landslide,” he said.
Governor Baydaş stated that they have a very serious infrastructure and said, “All public institutions and organizations under the coordination of AFAD Presidency have all kinds of intervention opportunities from air, land and sea. As a city, we are in a position to instantly gather hundreds, thousands of people with our volunteer teams and intervene in a disaster with all their equipment.”
Disaster Response Services General Manager Sadi Ergin stated that they organized regional drills according to the disaster risk of each geographical location in the region due to the intensity of disasters and floods in the region and various parts of Türkiye.
Stating that they conducted 64 local and six regional drills last year, Ergin said, “This year, we will conduct 54 local and 14 regional drills. Last week, we conducted our regional drill for forest fires in Isparta. Today, we organized the drills for Rize's regional floods and inundations here. We are increasing the capacity of our regions every day according to the disaster risk in our country.”
