Following the thunderstorms that ravaged central Greece killing two people on Friday while floods, power outages and debris damaged the north and the mainland, Cyclone Ianos decided to head to Crete.
According to the National Observatory of Athens’ (NOA) Meteo weather service cyclone Ianos, is still active but hopefully not as strong. The rare hurricane-like cyclone that appears in the eastern Mediterranean, is also called ‘Medicane’.
Apart from the two victims- a woman found dead near her home in Farsala, Thessaly and a 63-year-old farmer swept by the growing waters in Karditsa, a third person is missing in central Greece.
The missing person is also a woman who was traveling by car after shutting her pharmacy. Another, woman, whose mother told authorities she was trapped in Mouzaki, has not communicated with her family.
Zakynthos, Kefalonia and especially Ithaca were hit the hardest with the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator struggling to keep the power network up.
The winds reached hurricane-force Category 1 strength, exceeding 200 km/h.
Greece’s main train service operator, Trainose, announced damages and had to cut train services linking northern and southern Greece.
Several buildings have been damaged by bursting rivers while local governments keep issuing warnings to the public to not go near power cables that have been disconnected and fallen on the ground.
According to reports, Ithaca had been hit the worst. Fallen trees are obstructing the island’s road network, while part of the road at the village of Piasaetos has been destroyed. In addition to the power failure on the entire island, there are also serious problems in telecommunications.
Dionisis Stanitsas, Mayor of Ithaca, dubbed the situation “very serious” stressing that roads connecting villages have been destroyed and that communications are down.
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