For the second time in just a few weeks, the Greek port city of Volos has been flooded by heavy rain. Until yesterday afternoon, rainfall of around 113 liters per square meter was recorded, after which it continued to rain almost continuously, as announced by the Greek meteorological service Meteo.
Portal/Louisa Gouliamaki
Many people spent the night without electricity and car traffic was prohibited. Residents were unable to leave their homes because the streets turned into violent torrents, carrying stones, branches, rubbish, bins and even cars towards the sea.
“Human lives are in danger. The world is in danger,” a visibly horrified Mayor Achilleas Beos told the ERTnews news channel this morning. “80 percent of the city is still without electricity.”
The interior of Volos was also affected
In many places the water is stagnant, drainage pipes are destroyed and people cannot work. Since the severe flooding in early September, people have worked tirelessly to clean up the damage, mud and rubbish, but so much water simply cannot drain away.
The deep “Elias” also ravaged the northern half of the island of Euboea, causing floods and mudflows. The interior of Volos, a large plain widely used for agriculture, was also affected again, where, according to residents, the water again reached several meters in height.
Individual extreme events cannot be directly attributed to a specific cause, but according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, one thing is clear: the climate crisis is making extreme weather events such as floods, storms and heat, more frequent and more intense.