UPD-2 – Death toll rises to 15 from Thessaly floods

Athens-Thessaloniki highway closed

There are now 15 dead from the bad weather Daniel as on Sunday afternoon (10/9) the body of a 42-year-old man who was missing in Agia Aikaterini Volos was recovered.

The body of the 42-year-old was found at noon by a sailing boat operator in the sea area of Mikra Trikeri, in Pagasitikos Gulf. It was collected by the Coast Guard and transferred to the Volos Hospital, where the relatives of the unfortunate 42chronou were called and identified him, according to gegonota.news.

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The tragic toll after the floods in Thessaly is increasing as a mother and her son who was missing in the area of Metamorphosis in Karditsa were found dead.

The two bodies found in Metamorfosi were transported in a black boat pulled by a tractor. Relatives burst into tears when they saw their loved ones dead. According to reports, it was an 88-year-old woman and her 65-year-old son who were missing. Firefighters and police officers covered the bodies with isothermal blankets

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The toll of casualties from the floods that “drowned” Thessaly and Magnesia has risen to 12. On Sunday morning, a 58-year-old man was found missing from Agios Dimitrios. The man had been on the list of missing persons since yesterday, September 9.

He was spotted today by a drone between the areas of Agios Dimitrios and Petrino.

Earlier, the body of a man was found in the sea area of Turkoneri in Evia, identified as a 77-year-old man missing from the bad weather in the area of Paltsi Pelion.

According to the Civil Protection on September 5 a 42-year-old man was found in Agia Aikaterini Volos, on September 7 two Austrians (possibly a couple, of unknown ages) were found in Potistika Pelion.
On 9 September a man was found between the settlements of Agios Dimitrios and Petrino in Karditsa. On the same day, two persons (an elderly 85-year-old woman and her 65-year-old son) were found in the area of Metamorfosi Karditsa.

A total of 4,250 rescues – evacuations of people, transported to safe places, have been carried out from 7 a.m. on Tuesday 5 September, until 7 a.m. today Sunday 10 September, according to an update from the Fire Department. Meanwhile, during the same period, the Fire Service Operations Centre received 9,047 calls for water pumping and tree felling.

The water level is in a phase of slow decline in several of the affected areas of Thessaly, slowly revealing three days after the disaster, the biblical destruction left behind by the “Daniel” bad weather. Towns and villages remain under tons of water and mud, the road network has collapsed in many places, bridges have been cut in two, houses have given way and the Thessalian plain has turned into an endless lake, with thousands of citizens displaced from their homes and countless losses to the region’s livestock and crops. Although “what we saw in the summer of 2023 with the heatwave and these days with Cyclone Daniel are so rare that we will see them again after 300-400 years”, as Christos Zerefos, secretary general of the Academy of Athens and professor emeritus of the University of Athens, explained, he nevertheless described the storm as “a very extreme situation”, having claimed the lives of 11 people and with 6 more missing.

Continuous evacuations

Three days after the passage of the bad weather “Daniel” Larissa, Magnesia, and Karditsa are still in high alert mode, with the extreme weather phenomenon still threatening dozens of settlements, as only 30 settlements were evacuated yesterday, mainly in the prefecture of Larissa, using 112. The reason is the level of the Pinios river, which remains above the danger limits despite the fact that the phenomena have stopped in the area. At the same time, the authorities remain on standby for the possibility of the flooding of Lake Karla, with 112 ringing yesterday, in order to prepare residents in Stefanovikio and Rizomilos. At the same time, catastrophic images of biblical proportions are emerging in Karditsa and Trikala, while the collapse of infrastructure, such as bridges and the road network, is almost total, and it is impossible to assess it yet.

The country cut in half

The duration of the consequences of the extreme weather phenomenon resulted in the closure of the Athens – Thessaloniki National Road yesterday due to the overflow of the Pinios River. In particular, the Athens – Thessaloniki national road and all its side roads from Katerini to Lamia are closed in the Athens – Thessaloniki direction. Also, on the road to Thessaloniki, the national road and its side roads are closed from Larissa to Imathia.

In addition, the General Regional Police Directorate of Western Macedonia has imposed a temporary ban on all vehicles in the direction of Larissa on the National Road Kozani – Larissa that have as final destination any area south of Tirnavos due to increased water volume.