Insurers set aside $40 million for flood claims in Istanbul and five other provinces

Insurance companies had set aside nearly TL 2 billion (about $40.4 million) as of Monday for damage from last week's record rainfall and flooding in Istanbul and five other provinces, according to the Insurance Association of Türkiye. The figure is an estimate of expected payouts on filed claims, and only a small fraction has been paid so far.

Officials said the rainfall was the heaviest since records began in 1942. Istanbul Governor Davut Gül told reporters on Monday that six people died in Istanbul, and the bodies of two more people from neighboring Kocaeli province washed up on the megacity's southeastern outskirts. He said nearly 20,000 damage reports had been filed, with about 2,000 homes and 900 businesses seriously damaged.

Filed claims under flood and inundation coverage stood at over TL 1.9 billion across 2,379 files, according to Anadolu Agency. The affected provinces are Istanbul, Kocaeli, Yalova, Bursa, Sakarya and Antalya.