Where there was a fire recently, streams are now turning into raging rivers. Greece is currently experiencing “biblical catastrophes”. Experts warn of more rain than in the Ahr Valley disaster.
Athens – An empty coach is just parked on the side of the road, suddenly the large vehicle simply tips to the side and sinks into the mud because the rain has washed away the road: the masses of water that the storm “Daniel” has been pouring out over central Greece since Monday evening surpass all predictions.
Cars are simply carried away by the floods, as numerous videos by citizens on social networks and Greek media have shown. 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 died
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.
The German Weather Service compared the storm “Daniel” with the flood disaster in the Ahr valley, but it was even worse: by Thursday, 500 to 1500 liters of rain per square meter could fall locally in central Greece. “That roughly corresponds to the annual precipitation total in Germany,” said the DWD. 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.
12,000 flashes within two hours
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,” Mitsotakis said.
Greek media spoke of “biblical catastrophes” in view of the storms that hit the country only shortly after the summer’s severe forest fires. dpa
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