Athens [Greece], September 8: Storm Daniel continued to wreak havoc across Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria on Thursday, leaving extensive damage and several casualties in its wake.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday ordered troops to be deployed to assist people trapped by severe flooding across central Greece as rains and high winds continued.
Heavy equipment and helicopters were called out to reach those trapped by floods.
Helicopters were able to take off to reach cut-off
villages for the first time since the storms began. The weather service predicted conditions would ease later on Thursday.
Emergency services recovered the body of a fourth victim, a farmer who was buried under debris caused by the flooding, in the central city of Domokos. The number of those missing remained unclear.
Meanwhile in western Turkey, the death toll has risen to eight. The body of a 53-year-old man was recovered in Kirklareli province near the border with Greece and Bulgaria, the state news agency Anadolu reported on Thursday.
The man was found dead in his car. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the search for missing persons had thus been concluded.
On Tuesday in Turkey, heavy rains caused flooding in the Greek border region and in the metropolis of Istanbul. Six people have been killed in the Kirklareli province and two in Istanbul. The weather authority warned that there could be more heavy rain in western Turkey and on the Black Sea on Thursday evening.
Back in Greece, the military has also been ordered to reconstruct collapsed bridges. The country's main motorway running north from Athens to Thessaloniki has been blocked over a distance of 200 kilometres, virtually cutting the country in two.
Greek media showed
video clips of perilous helicopter rescue missions from rooftops amid continuing high winds.
A brigade of marines stationed near the port of Volos, which has been covered in mud, was called in, and in Larissa, the capital of Thessaly, a crisis unit was set up. Saving life is the priority, government spokesman PavlosMarinakis said in Athens.
Volos is completely cut off and is without electricity and public water supplies, while bottled water is running low in supermarkets.
An emergency services spokesman said low-lying areas of Thessaly, home to some 700,000 people, were completely inundated, with water up to 2 metres deep in some areas. Some 5,000 emergency calls had come in over the past 36 hours, the spokesman said.
Residents in Karditsa in the west of the region clambered onto rooftops as water levels rose to as high as 4 metres. The heavy rains are expected to ease late on Thursday, after which repairs to infrastructure will commence.
All those who had suffered losses would receive assistance, Marinakis said.
Details on the missing remained murky, as many villages are cut off, and people are unable to recharge their mobile phones.
Conditions across central Greece were in sharp contrast to many tourist areas on the mainland and the islands, which were largely unaffected.
Source: Qatar Tribune