Excessive-weather floods sweep away lives in Greece and Turkey

At the least 22 folks have died in flash floods that scoured Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria after record-breaking rain.

The physique of a 77-year-old man was recovered in central Greece, the place 11 deaths are confirmed, late on Saturday with these listed as lacking additionally rising to 6.

Officers have issued a grim warning that the demise toll is more likely to rise.

The person was dwelling within the seaside village of Paltsi, within the mountainous Pelion peninsula located between the Aegean Sea to the east and Pagasitikos gulf to the west.

He had refused to go away his residence, regardless of the entreaties of his spouse, who evacuated. “I’ve been by way of storms,” he had instructed her.

The person’s physique drifted within the Aegean, previous the island of Skiathos, to a different island, Evia, the place it was discovered, authorities mentioned.

Pelion was hit by torrential rains first on Tuesday, with some places reporting near 76cm of rain in lower than a day. The remainder of the area of Thessaly, to the west, was struck later Tuesday and on Wednesday and Thursday.

Evacuation ordered

One other village close to a serious Greek metropolis was ordered evacuated on Saturday afternoon as authorities frantically shored up flood defences in opposition to a rising river.

Rescue crews had been evacuating stranded residents from areas already flooded elsewhere in Thessaly.

The village of Omorfochori, about 8km by highway from town of Larissa, Thessaly’s capital and largest metropolis, was ordered evacuated by SMS alert as a result of rising waters of the Pineios river. Residents had been directed to a city to the southeast.

However the principle concern stays that the already overflowing river may inundate Larissa itself, a metropolis of round 150,000. Authorities positioned tens of 1000’s of luggage stuffed with sand and pebbles alongside the river’s banks, whereas opening up diversion channels west of town.

There was a lot criticism about state and native authorities’ response to the most recent catastrophe to hit Greece, exhausting on the heels of devastating wildfires.

The rescue response to the floods that resulted from torrential rains that hit the world from Tuesday to Thursday was negligible till early Thursday, whereas folks had been clinging to the roofs of their stricken properties, in accordance with a report in Greek each day newspaper Kathimerini.

The paper reported that, of the Air Power’s 12 search-and-rescue Puma helicopters, solely 4 are operational, with the remaining both cannibalised for spare elements or grounded for thus lengthy that they will not fly.

-AAP