Severe flooding again in Greece

After heavy rain, torrents again flowed through the streets of the city of Volos, which was hit hard at the beginning of September, and a curfew was imposed. Several villages in the surrounding area were evacuated.

Large parts of the 140,000-inhabitant city of Volos were cut off from power supply by renewed flooding. Parts of a local hospital were also flooded, but it remained operational. To rescue more than 250 people from the flood areas, the fire department used inflatable boats and special vehicles.

Storm “Elias” raged

The new storm called “Elias” had already caused flooding on the island of Euboea, near Athens. Traffic was therefore restricted in the north of the island. The Fthiotida region also suffered from “Elias”.

“Our thoughts today are in Volos and Euboea,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. According to forecasts, the storm should weaken from Thursday evening. The emergency services remained in place, fire department spokesman Vassilios Vathrakoyanis told the Greek television station ERT.

At the beginning of September, heavy rain caused by storm “Daniel” triggered massive flooding in central Greece. 17 people were killed. In Volos, the drinking water supply failed for two weeks and the city has not yet completely repaired the flood damage caused by “Daniel”.

Just finished cleaning

“Only this week did the authorities finish cleaning the affected places,” Eleni Konstantatou, who lives in Volos, told AFP. When it started to rain on Wednesday, she “didn’t expect the area to be flooded again.” Now the people in Volos are “back to where they started”.

As a result of “Daniel”, agricultural areas and livestock farms were also flooded. Greek Agriculture Minister Lefteris Avgenakis said on Wednesday that clean-up teams had already removed more than 180,000 dead farm animals.

However, more than a dozen chicken farms are still inaccessible due to destroyed roads. The flood also destroyed crop yields of cotton, corn, wheat, apples and kiwis.

Accusations against the government

After the disaster, the government in Athens was accused of poor crisis management. She promised two billion euros in reconstruction aid. Before the floods, Greece had already been hit by severe forest fires this summer.

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