The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, asked for professionalism and seriousness from everyone. in view of the inclement weather, following the completion of successive meetings held in Civil Protection. Earlier, the Risk Assessment Committee met, followed by an Interministerial Committee meeting on the subject of worsening weather and the operational coordination of all the agencies involved.

Mr. Kikilias advised everyone to be careful and avoid moving to areas that will be affected by the bad weather, while he pointed out that a new meeting of the Risk Assessment Committee will be held tomorrow at 12 noon where the final decisions on any traffic bans will be made.

As Mr. Kikilias said, this is bad weather, which it seems will affect – mainly on Tuesday and possibly from the evening hours of Monday, while it may extend on Wednesday – areas of Attica, Attikovoiotia, part of Magnesia, Thessaly, Evia and Crete.

“Today, at 12 noon, the Risk Assessment Committee met with our scientists, and then we had a broad inter-ministerial meeting with the presidency of the government and all relevant agencies and ministries. What I have to ask from everyone is to be professional and serious in the way of dealing with the weather phenomena that we never know exactly their intensity and their size, because you also see that every 6 hours and every 12 hours the meteorological data changes”, noted Mr. Kikilias and added that prevention is very important.

“There will be another meeting of scientists and meteorologists tomorrow at 12, in order to gradually decide what the bans will be and with what criteria we will possibly have decisions, which will be issued and will also concern the general population. In any case the basics must be repeated. On such days, if we can, we avoid commuting. Obviously, we have the basics in our car and mainly, chains are now mandatory. We are listening to the updates and instructions from the Fire Brigade, Civil Protection of course from ELAS and the organized state and we are trying to do our best so that we can respond to the data that will emerge”, underlined Mr. Kikilias and emphasized that there is forecast at this time by periods and hours, from Monday night to Tuesday for the areas he mentioned, for possible snow storms, extreme weather, winds of 9 and 10 Beaufort, possible landslides, possibly in Crete, as well as falling trees, which they concern, as he said, both DEDDIE and ADMIE. “All of this will be factored in again tomorrow morning in everything to do with schools and the possible or not of telecommuting in the public sector and in the private sector. In general, our recommendation is caution for these next hours and days. Prevention is better and more powerful than treatment. So if there’s no reason to move and charge, that’s what we’d recommend. You will have to wait until tomorrow to hear the weather data update and the final decisions,” Mr Kikilias pointed out.

The meeting of the Risk Assessment Committee was attended by the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, the Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Evangelos Tournas, the Secretary General of Civil Protection Vassilis Papageorgiou, the Chief of the Fire Brigade, Lieutenant General Theodoros Vagias, the Commander of of the Unified Coordination Center for Crisis Management (ESKEDIK), lieutenant general Dimitrios Briolas, and the members of the Risk Assessment Committee, Efthymios Lekkas (president of OASP), Theodoros Kolidas (Director of EMY), Dimitrios Ziakopoulos (meteorologist) and Christina Souzi (meteorologist).

The wide-ranging inter-ministerial committee that took place was attended by the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, the Minister of State, Akis Skertsos, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, Thanasis Kontogeorgis, the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Domna Michailidou, the Minister of Education, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Theodoros Skylakakis, the Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Evangelos Tournas, the general secretary of Civil Protection Vassilis Papageorgiou, the general secretary of Public Order, Manos Logothetis, the general secretary of Labor Relations, Anna Stratinaki, representative of the Ministry of Health, the regional governor of Attica, Nikos Hardalias, the regional governor of Central Greece, Fanis Spanos, the regional governor of Thessaly, Dimitris Kouretas, the chief of the Fire Department, Lieutenant General Theodoros Vagias, the Commander of the Unified Management Coordination Center of Crisis (ESKEDIK), Lt. Gen. Dimitrios Briolas, representatives of GEETHA, ELAS, the Coast Guard and the EKAV, the members of the Risk Assessment Committee, Efthymios Lekkas (president of OASP), Theodoros Kolidas (Director of EMY), Dimitrios Ziakopoulos (meteorologist) and Christina Souzi (meteorologist), representatives of concessionaire highways as well as representatives of DEDDIE and ADMIE.