- Greek floods follow deadly storms.
- Power cuts affect Volos, Evia.
- Climate adaptation a priority.
Power cuts have hit the city of Volos and the island of Evia as other regions of central Greece are still recovering from floods which caused 16 deaths earlier this month.
Fresh flooding in Greek has damaged homes and roads just weeks after the country was pummelling by lethal storms.
On Wednesday, torrential rain moved across large portions of central Greek, causing power outages in the coastal city of Volos and the island of Evia.
At least eight villages were evacuated Wednesday night due to rising inundation.
Volos, a city of approximately 140,000 people, imposed a ban on vehicular traffic and exhorted its inhabitants to remain indoors.
The local fire service evacuated scores of flooded homes and got hundreds of calls for help, but no one died or went missing.
State-run ERT television reported that the hospital substructure in Volos was flooded, but services were not affected.
Evia’s streets flood after the intense rain, as seen on camera.
Fresh heavy storms follow deadly wildfires that caused record devastation this summer, and the government announced earlier on Wednesday that adapting to climate change has become a national priority.
Volos, the nearby Mount Pilion region, and other parts of central Greek are still recovering from the floods earlier this month that killed sixteen people, destroyed homes and infrastructure, ruined harvests, and drowned tens of thousands of livestock in Thessaly’s most important agricultural region.
As a consequence of the previous storms, drinking water is still unavailable in some of these areas.
In the northern portion of the island of Evia, army and municipal crews removed debris from roads near the flooded towns of Limni and Mantoudi, where the fire department reported receiving scores of calls from flooded households on Wednesday.
Authorities in central Greece and nearby islands were on alert for the forecast storm.
The government reported that the initial damage estimate from the storm earlier this month exceeded €2 billion (£1.73 billion), with infrastructure repair estimated to cost nearly €700 million (£607 million).
Greek has received EU emergency cash and is renegotiating aid packages to target more funds to alleviate wildfire and flood damage.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, “I will state the obvious: The frequency of [weather] attacks as a result of climate change necessitates the incorporation of civil protection [in our response].”
Added: “Adaptation to the climate crisis is a fundamental priority in all of our policies.”
