A broad meeting was held today under the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilia, with the regional governor of Attica, Nikos Hardalia and mayors of northern, northeastern and western Attica, in the context of assuming their new duties for dealing with severe weather phenomena.

The focus of the meeting was on the coordination and readiness of all involved bodies to deal with the effects of possible severe weather phenomena in the basin.

Mr. Kikilias reiterated the need for early forecasting, prevention and proper information in order to reduce the effects of any phenomenon, while for the upcoming wave of bad weather he emphasized that based on the forecast of the EMY and their partner scientists, meteorologists, it will not be so pressing phenomenon.

“We had the opportunity today to meet with the new mayors and of course the regional governor for Attica, here where we have five million inhabitants of the country, so it is a much more burdened region than the others and not used to snowfall. It seems that based on the forecast of the EMY and our partners, the scientists-meteorologists, the phenomenon will not be so pressing”, said Mr. Kikilias and added that today’s meeting was an opportunity for an exercise on paper. “What does the region do and what are its responsibilities, what do the municipalities do, especially peri-urban, peri-urban residents who are burdened the most. How many machines are there in the register, how many with shears, how many for earthworks, how many bobcats”, noted Mr. Kikilias, while he emphasized that the meeting was also attended by the Fire Department, the Traffic Police and ELAS, “which plays a key role” but also the concessionaires of the Attica Road and other highways, as Mr. Kikilias said “and this coordination is very, very important”. “As a last ditch there will always be cooperation with the Armed Forces, this has been proven“, underlined Mr. Kikilias.

“In an area like Attica that has such weaknesses, such as overpopulation and so many cars, one of the biggest reserves we have to deal with such a phenomenon proactively, are preventive bans. So you understand that if and as long as we have such extreme phenomena in Attica, we will possibly proceed to close schools and public services or private ones, shift work, telecommuting and preventive bans on the movement of cars so that the snow removal machines can enter and be able to clear the streets . The two are not compatible, i.e. roads full of vehicles and at the same time snow plows trying to clear the roads or pour salt. I always repeat that early prognosis, prevention and proper information help us to reduce the effects of any phenomenon. Unfortunately the climate crisis is here“, pointed out Mr. Kikilias.

Regarding the availability of snow plows, Mr. Kikilias emphasized that they have received responses from all the companies and in the register of project machinery, there is almost a three-digit number of machines, such as heavy-duty machines and the so-called shears, etc.

“The distribution is done by region by sub-region and in cooperation with the municipalities based on the project contracts that have progressed. There is no successful tender in the Attica region and for this reason they will choose machines from the register“, noted Mr. Kikilias.

The meeting was attended by: the Deputy Minister of the Interior Theodoros Livanios, the Deputy Ministers of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Evangelos Tournas and Christos Triandopoulos, the Secretary General of Civil Protection Vassilios Papageorgiou, the Secretary General of Natural Disaster Recovery and State Aid Petros Kambouris, the Regional Governor of Attica Nikos Hardalias and the deputy governor of Civil Protection Leonidas Manolakos.

The mayors of Mandra-Idyllia Armodios Drikos, Georgios Georgopoulos of Elefsina, Aikaterini Dionysou Maichosoglou, Georgios Oropou Jasimakis, Mylonakis Ioannis of Agia Paraskevi, Pisimisis Ioannis of Vrilissi, Vasilios Xypolitas of Kifissia, Kosmopoulos Anastasia of Penteli, Achar of Vrettos Spyridon.

In addition, the following participated: the chief of the Fire Brigade, lieutenant general Georgios Pournaras, the deputy chief of the Fire Brigade, lieutenant general Marios Apostolidis, the chief of staff of the Fire Brigade, lieutenant general Christos Lambris, the coordinator of Attica Operations based in Athens, lieutenant general Panagiotis Niafas, the commander of ESKEDIK , Lt. General Theodoros Vagias, the director of Planning of the Greek Police Dimitris Alexandris, the director of Attica Traffic Brigadier Christos Papafilippou and the head of the Order Branch of the Hellenic Police Lt. Gen. Georgios Michalopoulos.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the concessionaire companies of the motorways Nea Odos SA, Olympia Odos Litori SA and Attikis Diadromes SA, as well as the director of EMY Theodoros Kolidas and a scientific team of meteorologists.