Just weeks after devastating fires devastated the Greek island of Evia (Euboea), a storm front swept through it Sunday, flooding homes and destroying roads.
Called “Athena” by Greek meteorologists, the storm caused “tremendous damage” to the road network near the coastal villages of Agia Anna and Psaropouli, a regional official with state broadcaster ERT said.
“Dozens of houses flooded … torrents of water have gone out of banks (even though the rain lasted only a couple of hours). This is a sign of a very severe winter to come,” the deputy governor of central Greece in Evia, Georgios Kelaiditis, told the channel.
He added that there are no reports of people trapped in homes or cars.
Forest fires in July and August devastated the islands of Evia and Rhodes, as well as forests north and southeast of Athens and parts of the Peloponnese peninsula.
Hundreds of people had to be evacuated, and three people died as a result of the fires. Several others were injured, some severely.
It took a huge international firefighting force from the EU and other countries to bring the fires under control, but more than 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) were lost.
The government blamed the disaster on the worst heat wave in decades.
