The devastating floods caused by the weather system Daniel left 15 dead and many missing, as well as thousands of displaces in central Greece. However, in times of unspeakable calamity, the human spirit rises to the surface, as in the case of an 80-year-old man in Metamorfosi Karditsa, who rescued stranded people from his village.
“The conditions were tragic. But because I’m an old boater and I’ve been through four floods in the village, I helped. It was the worst flood,” explained Mr. Tassiopoulos.
“I went out and took a sailed around in the boat, I heard some people shouting ‘We’re drowning’. One had water up to his chin and his wife was sitting next to him. I put them in the boat, five of them, and kept pulling people out. Another family, I pulled them out of the tiles. I tore my hands off too, pulled out four rows of tiles, and got them out. In total I got 15 people out, I took them to the community office because it’s up there, it’s on the second floor,” the 80-year-old said.
“They were telling me to ‘pay you’. What payment, guys, we’re looking to save ourselves here, am I going to get a paycheck? They were all elderly and one kid was 18 years old. Now we came by helicopter,” he added.
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