For the second time in just a few weeks, the Greek port city of Volos has been flooded by heavy rain.
By Wednesday afternoon there had been rainfall of around 113 liters per square meter, after which it continued to rain almost non-stop, as the Greek weather service Meteo announced. Many people spent the night without electricity and car traffic was banned. Residents were unable to leave their homes because the streets had turned into torrents, carrying stones, branches, rubbish, garbage cans and even cars towards the sea.
Mayor: “Human lives are in danger”
“Human lives are in danger. The world is in danger,” said Mayor Achilleas Beos, visibly shocked, to the news channel ERTnews this morning. “80 percent of the city is still without electricity.” In many places the water is standing still, the drainage pipes are destroyed, and people cannot go to work. Since the severe flooding at the beginning of September, people have worked tirelessly to clear up the damage, mud and rubbish, but so much water simply cannot drain away.
Deep “Elias” also hit the northern half of the island of Euboea, causing floods and landslides. The hinterland of Volos, a large plain heavily used for agriculture, was also affected again, where, according to residents, the water was several meters high again. Firefighters were also brought in from other parts of Greece, and the army was also deployed with boats and crawler vehicles to rescue people from houses.
From September 4th to 8th, a severe storm settled over central Greece. Heavy rain flooded villages and towns in many places. The amount of precipitation reached unprecedented levels of more than 700 liters per square meter in less than 24 hours. 17 people were killed. Storm “Daniel” then moved on – and caused catastrophic floods in Libya with thousands of deaths.
