Extreme weather
Flood in Greece: Two more victims rescued
Firefighters evacuate people from a flooded area in Larisa. photo
© Vaggelis Kousioras/AP/dpa
How many people will rescue workers be able to save in water-trapped villages? A race against time begins in the affected areas.
In the areas flooded by storm “Daniel”. Rescue work in central Greece is in full swing. Two more fatalities were rescued yesterday evening, the fire department announced. This brings the number of deaths to six. In addition, hundreds of people have already been rescued from the flooded areas.
For the first time yesterday afternoon, helicopters were able to fly into the completely flooded villages of the municipality of Karditsa to rescue people from rooftops; Before that the storm was too strong. The military was also called in and advanced into inaccessible areas with armored vehicles, as Greek media reported. The extreme weather should be over by today at the latest, as meteorologists predicted – the damage cannot yet be foreseen.
Over 24 hours without food or drinking water
In the cities of Volos and Larisa the situation was catastrophic. In Larisa, after days of rain, around 80 people were surrounded by the floods for over 24 hours without food or drinking water, as the newspaper “To Proto Thema” reported. Finally, a resident came with a tractor and trailer and brought the people to safety.
In the port city of Volos, with around 150,000 inhabitants, the heavy rains had washed countless tons of mud into the streets. Car traffic remained banned until further notice to keep the path clear for rescue workers and because roads were flooded or washed away. Electricity and water supplies had not yet been restored by Thursday evening. Meanwhile, supplies of drinking water in supermarkets were running low; Images showed queues of people queuing for a few bottles of water amid the flooding. There are also increasing problems with the food supply, reported the daily newspaper “Kathimerini”.
Around 500 holiday families trapped by the water
While the rest of Greece – and tourism there – are hardly affected, around 500 holiday families in the Pelion holiday region in Thessaly are said to be trapped by the water. This is what the deputy mayor of South Pelion, Dimitris Parrisiadis, told “Kathimerini”. The destruction is huge and most villages are still cut off from the water. “I estimate that there are still around 500 families of Greek and foreign tourists in the south of Pelion and cannot leave.”
There was no information from the fire department or police about the number of missing people. This was not possible because they had not yet penetrated into the enclosed towns, it was said. Since the people there are left without electricity and now also without cell phone batteries and cannot communicate with the outside world, it is not known who is missing.