Floods in Greece: Two Austrians missing

2023-09-07 10:05:00

“At the current time, we unfortunately have to confirm that two Austrian citizens are missing in Pelion, which was badly hit by the storms. The Austrian embassy in Athens and the honorary consulate in Volos are in constant contact with the local authorities in order to search for the missing people as best as possible support,” the State Department told APA.

According to the “ekathimerini.com” portal, it is a newlywed couple from Graz whose holiday home was washed away in the Pelion region on Tuesday. Accordingly, the couple fled to a hill to escape the water masses. They have been missing ever since.

200 km of the country’s main highway closed

Overall, the flood situation in the areas of central Greece affected by heavy rain worsened on Thursday. It continued to rain in the Thessaly region – the water had divided the country in two, Greek media reported. The country’s most important motorway between Athens and Thessaloniki has been closed for a distance of 200 kilometers since Tuesday evening.

The port city of Volos is almost completely cut off from the environment. Access roads have been destroyed or flooded, and ferry services have also been suspended. The drinking water in supermarkets was also running out – there has been no electricity and water supply for days.

“There has not been something like that before”

“Thessaly’s flat land is a huge lake,” fire department spokesman Giannis Artopoios told ERTnews on Thursday afternoon. In many places the water is more than two meters high. In the meantime, the military is also using inflatable boats. Around 700,000 people live in the entire region of Thessaly – almost all of them are affected by the flood. “We had a good 5,000 emergency calls within 36 hours, something like this has never happened before,” said Artopoios. He asked people to keep calling, but urged patience for those who are not immediately at risk.

The official number of dead is still three, but no conclusive information could be given about the number of missing people. Too many villages have not yet been reached, and the people in the flooded areas often have empty mobile phone batteries and are unable to communicate with the outside world.

Cautious all-clear from the meteorologists

Although it continued to rain and storm heavily in the affected region on Thursday and the levels kept rising, overall the meteorologists are cautiously giving the all-clear: the rains should stop by Thursday evening.

Then the massive damage caused by the severe storms should be fully visible for the first time. The mayors of the affected areas spoke to Greek media about collapsed roads and bridges, cut power connections, but also destroyed houses and companies. The damage could be in the billions.

water up to the roofs

In the city of Karditsa, the water reached up to the roofs of the houses in many places, so that the residents had to save themselves on the roofs. “The water is up to four meters high in some places,” the resident of a nearby town told the broadcaster Mega. Her village is inaccessible, the whole plain is flooded and rescue workers cannot come. “Maybe with helicopters, but where should they land? There is no land!” said a man. The use from the air is currently not possible due to the difficult weather conditions and gusts of wind, said fire brigade spokesman Artopoios.