ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The death toll from severe flooding in central Greece rose to 10 people Friday, while another four remained missing, a government official said Friday, as rescue crews in helicopters and boats ferried hundreds of people from inundated villages to safety.
Flooding triggered by rainstorms that began Tuesday also hit neighboring Bulgaria and Turkey, killing a total of 22 people in all three countries since the rains began on Tuesday.
In Greece, the rainstorms turned streams into raging torrents that burst dams, washed away roads and bridges and hurled cars into the sea. Authorities said that some areas received twice the average annual rainfall for Athens in the space of just 12 hours.
Although the rainstorms had ebbed by Friday, floodwater continued to rise after the Pineios River burst its banks near the city of Larissa, one of Greece's largest cities with a population of around 150,000, triggering evacuation orders for several areas.
“The situation is tragic,” Larissa resident Ioanna Gana told Greece’s Open television channel, adding that water levels in her flooded neighborhood were rising “minute by minute.”
Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said that 1,800 people had been rescued by boat and helicopter from flooded villages, including 150 people who had been in need of immediate medical care. Twenty helicopters and 1,000 rescuers were involved in the rescue operation, the minister said.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who canceled his annual state of the economy speech scheduled for the weekend and was visiting the flooded areas on Friday, said that he had contacted the European Union to request financial assistance from the 27-member bloc for rebuilding.
“Our first priority over the next few days is to ensure we can evacuate our fellow citizens from areas where they might be in danger,” Mitsotakis said.
Hundreds of people were trapped in villages unreachable by vehicle as roads were washed away or severed by rockfalls. Rescue crews helped young children, the elderly and people on stretchers from helicopters as they landed in a staging area in the town of Karditsa. Local media showed scenes of devastation.
Rescuers chest-deep in water carried an elderly evacuee on a stretcher on their shoulders, while residents of villages left without electricity or drinking water dialed in to Greek television and radio stations, appealing for help and saying people were still trapped without food or water.
Between Tuesday and early Friday, the fire department said that more than 1,800 people had been rescued and the department had received more than 6,000 calls for help in pumping water from flooded homes and removing fallen trees.
In the Pilion area, residents and tourists were ferried to safety by sea late Thursday as all access roads to some villages were severed.
Authorities have deployed swift water rescue specialists and divers as floodwaters rose above two meters (six feet) high in some areas, leaving many houses flooded up to their roofs. Residents of some villages have reported buildings collapsing completely.
The flooding followed on the heels of devastating wildfires that destroyed vast tracts of forest and farmland, burned homes and left more than 20 people dead.
Elena Becatoros, The Associated Press
