"Letter from Ankara
By Jasper Mortimer
THE EXPERTS said they were the heaviest rains for 80 years. They burst an earth-wall dam north of Istanbul, overwhelmed the city’s canals and culverts, carried away huge trucks as if they were boats, and flooded hundreds of homes, factories and warehouses.
Politically, they may have been the best downpour for 80 years. Never before has nature so punished the government and city council for allowing construction on the banks of rivers and streams – the river basins that are supposed to absorb excessive rain."
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