“Get us out of here”: Greece is drowning in the rain – people save themselves on roofs

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

The tiled roofs of the village of Palamas rise out of the water like small pyramids – nothing else can be seen of the town. Elsewhere, houses are about to collapse or have already been swept away by the water, as are roads and bridges. The situation in Central Greece, where storm Daniel raged for the fourth day in a row on Thursday, has deteriorated again.

Although the rain should finally stop on Friday morning, the damage is already huge. It is still unclear how many are missing; a fourth fatality was recovered. The most important questions and answers at a glance:

The storm had settled over the Thessaly region of central Greece on Monday; the cities of Volos and Larisa, among others, were hit. Because storm Daniel hardly moved from the spot, it caused heavy flooding and extensive damage there.

The rest of the country, i.e. most of Greece, is not or hardly affected by the heavy storms. However, the mainland has been divided to some extent by the flooding: the country’s main highway between Athens and Thessaloniki has been closed since Tuesday along the flooded areas. The train connection between the two metropolises was also discontinued.

“The flat land of Thessaly is a huge lake,” said fire service spokesman Giannis Artopoios. In many places the water is more than two meters high. About 700,000 people live in the region, considered the ‘breadbasket’ of Greece – almost all of them were affected by the flood.

“We had about 5,000 emergency calls within 36 hours, something like this has never happened before,” said Artopoios. Cries for help came from various villages on social media: ‘Get us out of here!’ it said. People had to climb onto the roofs of their houses to save themselves.

The port city of Volos with its approximately 150,000 inhabitants was almost completely cut off from the outside world. Ferry traffic has been shut down, many access roads have been flooded or destroyed by the water. There is no electricity and therefore no water supply, and the supermarkets have almost no drinking water left. “Tons of mud have been washed into the streets,” the city’s mayor, Achilleas Mpeos, reported on Facebook.

The death toll remained at six on Friday morning. It is unclear how many people are missing. Because many villages have been cut off from the outside world for days, there is no electricity and people no longer have mobile phone batteries, so far there have been hardly any reports of missing persons. It is necessary to wait until the rescuers can reach the places.

Due to the storm and the showers, no helicopters could be deployed so far. But they’ve been on their way since Thursday. Video footage from the fire service shows how difficult the conditions are: people are rescued from roofs during a storm.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has ordered the deployment of the army. Heavy equipment will be deployed to help, for example armored vehicles that can penetrate into isolated villages. In addition, military engineers must install makeshift bridges where bridges have collapsed. Mitsotakis promised that those who lost their belongings in the floods would receive financial aid as soon as possible.

Compared to other Greek holiday destinations such as Crete, Chalkidiki, the Cyclades or the Peloponnese peninsula, the Thessaly region is not very touristy. Still, there were foreign visitors who had to accept restrictions.

On the Sporadic islands of Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos, the power went out and it rained heavily. Skiathos Airport remained temporarily closed, but has reopened since Thursday. The port of Volos cannot be reached from the islands for the time being, but there are alternative ports. In the rest of the country, people normally go on holiday.

The last of the region’s rain clouds are expected to dissipate by Friday morning, after which the usual sunshine returns for the time of year.

Many meteorologists and other experts in Greece share this view, which also predominates in the current government.

There is no time to lose in tackling the climate crisis, President Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou said on Wednesday, referring to the numerous and sometimes very large forest and forest fires this summer and the current floods. Athens has chosen the Ministry of Civil Protection, which has been responsible for the climate crisis since the severe fires of 2021. (SDA/jmh)

Source: Blick