Blizzard Hits Turkey: Rescue Team Evacuation 1,780 People Trapped On Highway, Temperature Minus 3 Degrees Celsius

Vehicle stuck due to snow storm in Turkey. (Source: Anadolu Agency via Daily Sabah)

JAKARTA - Thousands of people were stranded on the highway linking Turkey's southern provinces, as heavy snowfall and a blizzard hit the Gaziantep region late Tuesday and Wednesday. About 1,780 people trapped in their cars in stationary traffic were evacuated by rescue teams.

Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül said that the stranded people were drivers and passengers on the Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep Toll Road (TAG), which was closed to traffic on Tuesday night.

Quoting Anadolu Agency's Daily Sabah January 19, Gul said they prioritized the sick among the stranded. Each was taken to the nearest hospital. Around 186 people who needed medical treatment were evacuated to hospital.

In addition he said the crew also distributed food to about 7,000 people on highways where vehicles were unable to move into low visibility and heavy snow.

Gul said crews helped 1,780 vehicles stuck on the road but "at least 2,800 more" were still stranded. Social media was flooded with messages about people waiting for help for hours on Tuesday night and early Wednesday.

The governor said the main cause of disruption on the highway was several long-distance trucks involved in accidents and slowing traffic. Work was underway as of Wednesday morning to remove the damaged trucks, but persistent blizzards pose a challenge.

To that end, the governor urged people living near the area not to drive on Wednesday. Later, the governor forbade drivers to leave Gaziantep.

In a rare phenomenon in the region, Gaziantep itself was hit by heavy snowfall and traffic came to a standstill in the province, one of the most populous in the country.

Temperatures were around minus 3 degrees Celsius (minus 26.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in the province early Wednesday. The thick layer of snow that covered the city center reached a thickness of 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) overnight.

Mehmet iftçi, a driver stranded on the highway, said he left Gaziantep on Tuesday evening for a trip to Tarsus, a city in Mersin province. He said it took more than an hour to drive the short distance before the highway traffic completely stopped.

Blizzards and snowfall also left hundreds of vehicles stranded on the Akseki-Seydişehir highway, which connects the Mediterranean province of Antalya to the central province of Konya, late Tuesday.

Drivers waited for traffic to move for hours, while police stopped more vehicles from arriving. Crews delivered food to stranded motorists, while some took shelter at rest stops along the way in the cold.

To note, the snowy winter that lasted for days had an impact on daily life across Turkey. Bad weather forced school closures in 52 provinces on Wednesday, the worst of anywhere except a few western provinces.

Turkey's State Meteorological Service (TSMS) warned that heavy snowfall would remain effective for most of the country on Wednesday as well, with several provinces in the Mediterranean region and in the west and northwest spared from heavy snowfall.

Snowfall and blizzards are the main transportation challenges across Turkey this week. Hundreds of roads leading to remote villages and towns are still closed, especially in the eastern and northern provinces. Although snow-clearing crews worked around the clock to ensure access, the road became inaccessible again hours later due to snowfall.