SW News: Greece is still being torn apart by powerful storms and extensive flooding. Much of the Mediterranean has had bouts of heavy rain during the past week. The storm, dubbed Daniel by the Greek weather service, has been battering the region all week and has mainly affected the central Magnesia region and Volos, north of Athens. Greece had experienced weeks of flames before the unexpected downpours.
More than thirteen people are now known to have died since the weather front hit Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, where the Black Sea coast has seen heavy rains causing rivers to overflow, cutting off roads in the region. Fierce thunderstorms, torrential rainfall, and flash flooding also wreaked havoc across parts of Turkey.
In Greece, authorities deployed divers and swift water rescue specialists as residents in some villages took refuge on the roofs of their homes to escape floodwaters that rose to more than 2 meters (6 feet).
The fire service said 110 people including a baby and one dog were airlifted to safety in an operation involving ten helicopters. Some of those evacuated by air told local media they had spent the night and most of Thursday on roofs without food or water. The helicopters, which were continuing with rescue operations in the wider Karditsa area, had been unable to fly earlier due to frequent lightning, authorities said.
A little further east, 200 people including a few international tourists were rescued by sea after being trapped on land because roads under Mount Pilion had been swept away or obstructed by rockfalls.
On Thursday, the body of a person who had been missing for a day was found in a stream. A few hours later, the fire department reported finding the remains of two women in a village close to Karditsa. The three deaths raised the country's overall flood death toll since Tuesday to six.
Vassilis Kikilias, Greece's minister for climate change and civil protection said the rescue operation will go on all night. While much of central Greece was flooded, a new forest fire had broken out on Thursday afternoon in the northeastern region of Evros.