Hundreds of people were rescued by firefighters and the army from villages in central Greece that were cut off by floods that killed at least ten people.
“More than 2,850 people have been rescued since the beginning of the bad weather,” Yannis Artopios, a fire department spokesman, told the Greek broadcaster Mega on Saturday.
“There are still a great number of inhabitants in the villages surrounding Karditsa, Palamas, and Trikala. They are not missing; they are trapped,” he said, adding that six individuals were officially considered to be missing.
Several homes remain under water in the village of Palamas and rescue workers were attempting to reach marooned people.
“It was truly hellish,” said Eleni Patouli, a local of Palamas.
We were stranded for hours without assistance or information. “The [emergency services] 112 message to evacuate arrived just as we were confronting the flooding, and we had no way out,” she said.
A few kilometers east of the city of Larissa, the situation also continues to be precarious.
“The Pinios River adjacent to the city of Larissa has risen to a height of 2.5 meters [8 feet],” Artopios said.
The flooding has destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of fertile farmland, and producers have also lost a substantial number of animals.
"We are in mourning. More than 1,500 pigs have perished, and 70 percent of our farm has been damaged, according to Thomas Kasos.
The water supply in the port city of Volos has become an issue because pumping stations and a substantial portion of the distribution network have been damaged. According to the health ministry, the water is unfit for consumption.
"Gastroenteritis cases have been reported, and there is a risk that this will increase if individuals lack sufficient water. Professor Elena Riza of the University of Athens School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology told Ert that the government must distribute at least two liters of potable water to each individual.
The highway between the country’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, and its capital, Athens, remained impassable in a number of locations, resulting in difficult traffic conditions.
The storm, named Daniel, struck the central coastal region of Magnesia on Monday and Tuesday before striking other towns such as Karditsa and Trikala farther inland on Wednesday.
The event was described by experts as “extreme in terms of the amount of precipitation that fell in a 24-hour period.”
In Greece this summer, at least 26 people perished in devastating fires, which were followed by heavy rainfall and flooding.
As the world warms, the atmosphere contains more water vapor, which increases the risk of severe precipitation in certain regions, particularly Asia, western Europe, and Latin America.
In conjunction with factors such as urbanization and land-use planning, these more intense precipitation events contribute to inundation.
This week, 12 persons were killed by severe flooding in Turkey and Bulgaria.