Istanbul's heaviest rainfall in 84 years cuts transport and utility networks

According to BirGün, the rain lasted around 30 hours. Hürriyet reported Çiftçi as saying that 272 kg of rain per square metre fell at some locations. Türkiye Today wrote that the Governor gave a figure of 261 kg for the worst-hit areas. The figures may come from different measuring points; the stations were not identified. The casualty count also shifted by the hour. On the morning of 16 October Çiftçi reported 3 dead and 6 missing; at 12:33 BirGün put the dead at 4 and those still sought at 3.

The city's infrastructure came under strain on several layers at once. According to Hürriyet, 51 flights at Istanbul Airport were diverted to alternate airports, 19 were cancelled and 16 main roads were closed. Minister Murat Kurum said 53 retaining walls had collapsed across 39 districts and that 48 landslides had occurred. Electricity and natural gas were cut in some neighbourhoods as a safety measure. Türkiye Today reported water outages in 12 districts on 14 October. In-person schooling was suspended for one day in 6 provinces on 16 October.

The scale of the response was also large. Of 12,372 emergency calls nationwide, 9,755 came from Istanbul, and 46,597 personnel were deployed in the city. The Chamber of Environmental Engineers argues that narrowing stream beds and channelling them into concrete conduits has reduced their capacity. The Ayamama stream also burst its banks in 2009. According to Hürriyet, at least 60 kg of fresh rain per square metre is expected in Istanbul on 17 October, with rainfall forecast to continue until 19 October.