The death toll of the catastrophic floods in the island of Euboea has reached 7, while there are two missing persons, as the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection, Nikos Hardalias announced on Sunday from the village of Psachna where he rushed to inspect the rescue efforts.

Mr. Hardalias took part in a meeting at the City Hall of Vassiliki with the governor of Central Greece, mayors and leaders of the forces participating in the rescue and relief operations.

The Deputy Minister of Civil Protection said the region had been struck by a huge disaster claiming that such extreme weather phenomena had been unprecedented. Mr. Hardalias stressed that “it is a difficult day after a difficult night” and referred to the great battle fought by the civil state staff under difficult conditions. As he pointed out, ‘we are facing phenomena for which we need to give our best to build structures that can deal with them.’

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“Everything occurred suddenly but the state apparatus was not caught off guard” said Mr. Hardalias, noting that from the first moment the Civil Protection cooperated with the Mayors and local bodies to avoid the worst.

The mobilisation of civil protection servants and volunteers includes 83 firefighters and a pedestrian unit with special equipment, 31 vehicles, special vehicles as well as 3 rescue boats from the 1st, 7th and 8th EMAK. In addition, there are air rescuers of the Fire Brigade from the 1st EMAK operating in the flooded areas with a helicopter as well as another helicopter for aerial surveillance and coordination of the operating forces. A total of 495 water pumps, 47 rescues and 8 rescues by Super Puma have been carried out in the last hours.