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GreekReporter.comGreek NewsThunderstorms Flood Streets and Homes in Athens and Northern Greece

Thunderstorms Flood Streets and Homes in Athens and Northern Greece

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Many streets in Athens were flooded during thunderstorms. Credit: AMNA

The short but intense spells of thunderstorms on Monday night to early Tuesday morning led to the flooding of major streets in and around Athens and Thessaloniki, and trees were uprooted in northern Greece.

No injuries have been reported thus far, but, in Ptolemaida in northern Greece and nearby villages, flooding in basements of homes led to additional firefighters being summoned to help from the regions of Epirus and West Macedonia. Since Monday night, these included a total of fifty firefighters with twenty trucks.

Water was pumped out in forty-five homes, basements, and professional spaces, and in a farming village about ten kilometers from Ptolemaida, the village of Ardassa saw over three inches of rainfall in nearly an hour. There were reports of flooded agricultural fields, irrigation channels, and overwhelmed drainage channels.

Further south, several mountain villages in the Trikala area had no electricity while in Kalabaka, firefighters were pumping water out of flooded basements.

Thunderstorms and hail were reported in Thessaloniki. Despite the brief storm, eastern Thessaloniki roads were flooded. The Fire Brigade was also called in to pump water out of basements and remove trees in Central and East Macedonia, including parts of the Chalkidiki peninsula.

In Athens, flooding temporarily shut down Pireos Street in both directions before police ordered its reopening.

Problems with flooding, however, were reported on the coastal Posidonos Avenue going toward Voula and on Vouliagmenis Avenue, also going toward Voula, with police shutting down sections of the major highways to traffic.

The rainfalls on Tuesday are part of a bad weather front forecast to last until Friday, August 26, 2022.

Meteorologists warn that more rainfalls are forecast for Wednesday, August 24th, mainly in the central and northern parts of the country and especially in Central and Eastern Macedonia, Thrace, the northern Aegean, and, possibly, the Sporades islands. Hailstorms are expected in the central and northern areas, Thrace, and the northeastern Aegean Sea.

Lightning during thunderstorm kills 50 sheep in northern Greece

Over fifty sheep were killed in the region of Vlacha in Metsovo of northern Greece after they were struck by lightning during a midday thunderstorm on Tuesday.

According to state broadcaster ERT, the frequent thunderstorms that have broken out in recent days are particularly intense with lots of lightning. Greece is high on the list of recorded deaths of people struck by lightning in Europe.

“Unfortunately, Greece…statistically probably [has] the highest number of deaths [compared to] other countries in Europe due to lightning,” said the training director of the Hellenic Rescue Team, Zafiris Trombakas, in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency’s radio station.

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