ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Turkey sent ships to help evacuate people and vehicles from a northern town on the Black Sea that was hard hit by flooding as the death toll in the disaster rose yesterday to at least 62 and more people than that remained missing.

Torrential rains pounded the country’s north-western Black Sea provinces last Wednesday causing flooding that demolished homes, severed bridges, swept away cars, and rendered numerous roads impassable.

The Turkish disaster agency AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) said 52 people were killed in the province of Kastamonu, nine in Sinop and one in Bartin.

Turkey’s interior minister said 77 people were still missing in the flooding. Eight remained hospitalised.

Emergency crews across the region kept up the search for the missing amid the many buildings that have partially collapsed.

The Turkish defence ministry sent two ships to evacuate people and vehicles from a town in Sinop. They also sent military vehicles that can serve as temporary bridges to help get access to areas where bridges have been wiped out.

Israel’s defence ministry said yesterday it had reached out to Turkey with an offer to send a search-and-rescue team.

The heavy flooding came after Turkey endured a searing heatwave and as crews in the south were taming wildfires that raced across the country’s Mediterranean coast.

Climate scientists say there’s little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme events — such as heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms — as the Earth warms.