Rain Rages On in Greece, Leaving Devastation in Its Wake

As night fell in central Greece, rescuers continued their exhaustive efforts to locate individuals trapped in villages submerged by floodwaters. The number of fatalities has risen to at least 12, with hundreds still believed to be marooned in their homes. Emergency services, bolstered by elite commando units and an ever-growing army of volunteers, are working tirelessly to find those in need. Helicopters and rubber boats are being deployed to rescue families unable to evacuate in time. Military personnel are wading knee-deep in water, rescuing people from balconies of homes, while others are being airlifted from roofs by helicopters.

The operation is a continuous and uninterrupted effort, with authorities working around the clock to provide aid. According to Ioannis Artopios, a fire department spokesperson, drones are being used to deliver food, water, and medication to those in need. The Pelion peninsula, where tourists were also brought to safety, has been completely cut off due to the floodwaters.

As of Sunday, 767 people had been rescued throughout the day, bringing the total number of those saved to 3,443 since Storm Daniel struck Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey on Tuesday. Five men and women, including a newlywed Austrian couple, are still missing. The pair, who had married just three weeks earlier, were last seen when their holiday home in Pelion was uprooted and washed into the sea.

The destruction caused by the storms is staggering, barely weeks after Greece was ravaged by heat-induced wildfires. The once-fertile Thessaly plain, the nation’s breadbasket, now lies metres deep under mud and silt, with great swaths resembling a lake. Floodwaters have destroyed almost everything in their path, leaving roads, bridges, water and electricity supplies, buildings, and infrastructure damaged.

The impact has been felt by almost everyone, with thousands believed to have lost homes, crops, properties, and livestock. One farmer told state-run TV that he had lost “600 sheep and 600 cows, goats, dogs, and cats.” Haralampos Tsergas, 59, in Palamas, south of Larissa, lamented, “The damage we have all suffered to our homes is irreparable. A lifetime’s worth of work was lost within two hours.”

Much of the town remains underwater, and official recording of the devastation is likely to take weeks. In the port city of Volos, where water cuts have been reported since Wednesday, entire streets have been turned into impassable mud-strewn zones, accessible only by bulldozers and tractors.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has vowed to “mobilise every European resource” in addition to national funds to facilitate compensation for households. Experts have warned of a public health emergency, amid a rise in gastroenteritis cases, and urged the government to fast-track distribution of drinking water. Evacuation orders have been issued for outlying communities close to Larissa as the waters of River Pineios rose high, prompting fears of yet more flooding around one of the nation’s largest urban centres.

As the nation struggles to recover from the disaster, it is crucial that “immediate help” is given to farmers who have lost livestock, with as many as 18,000 animals lost to the storms. The head of Larissa’s agricultural cooperative told ERT that it was essential to provide relief to those affected by the natural disaster.