BOURTZI, Greece (AP) — The body of a man missing after a storm sparked flash floods on the Greek island of Evia over the weekend was recovered Monday near the Greek mainland, Greece’s coast guard said, bringing the death toll from the storm to eight.
救援crews had been searching for the 72-year-old since Sunday, after he was reported missing following flooding that swept away cars and sent residents of some villages scrambling to their roofs to await rescue.
海岸警卫队说，该男子的尸体在星期一中午之后从希腊大陆海岸的海岸从海上恢复。
The dead from the storm and flash floods include an elderly couple found in their flooded home Sunday morning, and an 8-month-old baby found in a flooded ground-floor apartment.
Parts of Evia saw rainfall that reached 80% of the annual rainfall for the area in the space of a few hours overnight Saturday to Sunday, Greece’s meteorological service has said.
A river burst through its banks and flooded part of the village of Politika, forcing many residents to climb to the rooftops of their homes. Another river in the village of Bourtzi also burst its banks. Authorities estimated that 3,000 residences had been partially or totally damaged by floodwaters and police said many local roads were made impassable. Power and water were also knocked out in some areas.
The flood swept away cars and storage containers, tossing them into streets and against the walls of buildings. On Monday local authorities, emergency crews and residents cleared debris and piles of mud from streets, homes and stores.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis surveyed the affected region by helicopter Monday afternoon, met with local residents and pledged speedy assistance for households and businesses.
Bourtzi resident Olga Sismanoglou said the rain began at around 11 p.m. on Saturday night, but initially didn’t appear very severe.
她说：“之后，它扫除了一切。”她说，她更广泛的家庭损失了五辆汽车和两辆被洪水带走的摩托车。
The region had suffered flooding before, in 2009, local residents said, but said no flood prevention measures had been taken in the area since then.
居民瓦西利斯·帕夫洛（Vassilis Pavlou）说，他在黎明左右听到隆隆声，类似于他在2009年听到的声音。
“我起床看外面，我看到了什么？水高两米（六英尺），水像海啸一样倒下。”他说。“它乘汽车了，已经占据了一切。我叫醒了孩子们，水来到阳台上，我们上了屋顶。”他们在那里等到洪水平息。
Heavy rain started falling at about midnight Saturday and firefighters responded to over 50 fires caused by lightning. By late afternoon Sunday, 97 people had been safely evacuated from their homes and cars, 30 of them by helicopter, and over 600 homes had been drained of floodwaters, the fire service said.
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Becatoros contributed from Athens, Greece.
