Huge rescue effort in Greek villages after deadly storms

ATHENS – Helicopters and lifeboats have been deployed to reach hundreds of stranded villagers in central Greece, as the death toll from deadly flooding rose to seven, the authorities said on Friday.

Firefighters worked alongside the army to reach villages cut off by rising water levels, which have transformed roads into rivers and left houses submerged in the central Thessaly region.

The torrential rain, brought on by Storm Daniel,

lashed the area from Monday evening to Thursday.

At least six people were reported missing in the Magnesia and Karditsa areas, 330km north of Athens.

“We almost died yesterday, we didn’t have drinking water or electricity”, Ms Mina Mprakratsi told AFP from a lifeboat, after being evacuated from her flooded house on Friday.

Fierce storms have battered Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria following a period of extreme heat and

devastating wildfires.

These are the kind of extreme weather climate experts say is becoming more frequent because of human-induced climate change.

The three-day onslaught brought one region more rain in 24 hours than London does in an average year, meteorologist George Tsatrafyllias said.

"I don't think we have realised the magnitude of this disaster yet," Professor Efthymios Lekkas, a disaster management expert, told state broadcaster ERT on Friday.

‘Extreme phenomenon’

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was due to visit the crisis-hit area on Friday, his office said.

The prime minister has described Storm Daniel as an “extreme phenomenon”.

Mr Mitsotakis

cancelled a trip

scheduled for Saturday to the northern city of Thessaloniki, where he was to deliver his annual keynote speech on the state of the economy.

Speaking to ERT, Thessaly Governor Kostas Agorastos said he estimated the storm caused around three times the €700 million (S$1.02 billion) inflicted by extensive floods in 2020.

More than 1,800 people had been rescued from flood-hit areas across Greece since Tuesday, the fire brigade said.

In the village of Vlochos near the city of Karditsa, about 150 people had been waiting for help for three days.

"We have been on the mountain," Mr Dimitris, one of the stranded villagers, told Skai television. "It's the third day without food, with nothing. We lit fires yesterday to cook whatever we managed to grab from our fridges."

In some areas, flood water was still 2m deep.

One of the breadbaskets of Greece, Thessaly represents about 15 per cent of the country's annual agricultural output. It is also a major cotton producing area.

Torrential rain left more than a metre of silt dumped on once-fertile soils. "The agricultural production isn't destroyed just for this year. The thick coat of silt means it is no longer fertile." Prof Lekkas said.

The heavy rain and flooding follow devastating fires in Greece this summer that killed at least 26 people.

Severe flooding in neighbouring Turkey and Bulgaria this week left 12 people dead. AFP, REUTERS