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People have to be rescued with inflatable boats, there is already one dead. The water masses that the storm “Daniel” has been pouring out over central Greece since Monday evening have exceeded all forecasts. Cars were simply carried away by the floods, as numerous videos on social networks and Greek media showed.
People are rescued from their homes in inflatable boats, for example in the port city of Volos, where the water flowed waist-deep on Tuesday. And it should continue to rain heavily, at least until Thursday.
A man was killed when the water brought down a wall, one person is still missing, according to the fire department. The damage is already enormous, as is the amount of water – and it continues to rain.
By Thursday, 500 to 1,500 liters of rain per square meter could fall locally in central Greece. “That roughly corresponds to the annual precipitation total in Germany,” said the German Weather Service. The predicted duration is similar to the situation with low “Bernd”, which led to the Ahr Valley flood in July 2021 – although the amount of precipitation in Greece could exceed that of the Ahr Valley up to six times. The expected rainfall is so heavy that the weather forecast models would have problems with the forecast. Especially since the rain was accompanied by severe thunderstorms, which are more difficult to forecast anyway.
Thousands of flashes
And there was a lot of thunderstorms on Tuesday night: According to the fire brigade, 12,000 lightning bolts were counted within two hours in the cities of Larisa and Volos alone. The power went out on the island of Corfu and there were problems with the operation of the airport there. On the Sporades islands of Skiathos, Skopelos and Alonissos, lightning and thunder erupted every second, causing landslides. In the Elis region in the west of the Peloponnese peninsula, hail destroyed parts of the forthcoming olive harvest.
The power went out in many places, and during the course of Tuesday the mobile phone networks and the Internet were partially affected in the affected regions or did not work at all. Because of the ongoing rainfall and flooding, the civil defense ordered local driving bans, including for residents of the port city of Volos and the Sporades island of Skiathos.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on citizens on Tuesday in front of journalists to follow the orders of the civil defense. It is extremely difficult to cope with such extreme phenomena without human cooperation. “If civil protection is asking citizens to stay at home, then they should do so,” said Mitsotakis.
The Greek media spoke of “biblical catastrophes” in view of the storms that hit the country only shortly after the summer’s severe forest fires.
Dead after floods in western Turkey
Two people died in severe storms in western Turkey. The civil protection authority Afad announced on Tuesday that four more are still being sought in the province of Kirklareli, near the Greek and Bulgarian borders. Six others were rescued. Pictures showed how helpers pulled a man out of the water and carried him away.
Heavy rain had previously flooded houses and streets. According to the state news agency Anadolu, holiday bungalows were also swept away by the water masses.
The civil protection authority warned of further storms in western and southwestern Turkey. There could be flash floods, lightning strikes and storms.
In mid-August, the Turks were still troubled by a heat wave. The temperatures in the east of the country are currently above the usual values for the season, in the rest of the country they are now in the normal range, the weather authority said.
Dead in floods on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast
Two people died on the southern Black Sea coast in Bulgaria in heavy rain and storms. Another three people were missing, as the television station bTV reported on Tuesday, citing the authorities. According to reports, hotels and houses on the Black Sea were flooded after continuous rain. Authorities declared a state of emergency in the Tsarevo area after the Veleka River burst its banks.
Streets were therefore flooded, cars were in the water. Bridges were swept away by the floods. Several seaside resorts were cut off from the outside world because country roads were impassable because of the water.
Several campsites in the region were also flooded, with cars and caravans reportedly being blown into the sea by strong winds. Vacationers were taken to safety. The power supply collapsed in the seaside resort of Sinemorets. Residents of the village of Kosti were evacuated. In the small town of Tsarevo, the authorities called on people to go to higher places.
Source: Nachrichten
