Floods Follow Catastrophic Fires in Greece’s Evia

The North Evia floods generated by the bad weather system “Athena” caused great destruction as they swept the fire-stricken North Evia on Saturday night.

The fire-affected areas of Evia are being tested again with the bad weather that has hit the country in the last three days. The passing of “Athena” has caused major problems in particular the fire-stricken Municipality of Mantoudi – Lake – Agia Anna.

Four people were trapped in Agia Anna, while, according to Mantoudi Mayor, Giorgos Tsapourniotis, about 100 people have been rescued from the floods since Saturday night as 200 homes are flooded in the area.

Mayor speaks of “biblical catastrophe”

The mayor spoke to public broadcaster ERT describing the dramatic situation in his area as a “biblical catastrophe.” “The situation is dramatic. A mountain of mud has been removed from the village. We have hundreds of calls to pump out water from homes.”

Deputy mayor of Mantoudi, Dimitris Skopelitis, speaking to MEGA television said that four elderly people who were trapped in the flood are in good health and there is an ongoing effort to rescue them.

Main roads were turned into rivers, houses were flooded, while problems were also noted in the provincial traffic network, as reported from the local press.

The residents of Achladi and Agia Anna communities are in an extremely difficult situation as rivers and streams have overflowed, flooding large areas, while the beach of Achladi was completely destroyed.

“Nothing left standing”

“After the catastrophic fires, came a catastrophic flood. There is nothing left standing. Agia Anna beach, Achladi beach, they have been destroyed. The rivers entered the houses,” the Mantoudi mayor said on Open TV.

“Achladi beach has been turned into a vast river. Road connections in all the villages have been cut,” he said.

“We are trying to see if people are safe. Things are terrible, my eyes have never seen such a catastrophe, nor have we seen such a tragic situation as with the fires,” he said.

The mayor said that the heavy rainfall that lasted from midnight until 2:30 am in North Evia caused floods that left nothing standing in Agia Anna, Achladi and Kotsikia, have problems.

“No one has slept all night. We use construction vehicles to remove people from their homes,” he said

“The fire service is working all night so we don’t have any casualties. The damage is incalculable. “Rivers that were almost streams, now they are almost 10 meters deep,” the mayor pointed out.

Deputy Regional Governor of Evia, Georgios Kelaiditis, stated on the North Evia floods:

“There are dozens of flooded homes. In the paved roads of the provincial road network from Ellinika to Agia Anna and traffic will be cut off because of the danger from flooded streams.”

According to the Hellenic Meteorological Society, the bad weather system “Athena” will worsen on Sunday with rain, thunderstorms and hail in the coming hours.