Rhodes: Request to declare a state of emergency

She has been measuring her wounds for the last few days Rhodesfrom the unprecedented bad weather that hit the northern part of the island, causing great damage.

OR Ialysos has been in the midst of the Bora storm for the past two days. The island is on alert and there is a request to declare a state of emergency as the damage to homes, businesses, cars and infrastructure is extensive.

A traffic ban is in force, due to the problems in the road network, while kindergartens, primary schools, high schools and high schools on the island will remain closed today Monday.

The officers of the Rhodes Fire Service, the Civil Protection Service of the Municipality and the Region, volunteers and many citizens who helped, fought a long-hour battle until dawn, in order to free people from their homes and from their cars that were immobilized on the streets and squares due to the huge amount of rain.

At least 80 elderly people, children and women were freed from their vehicles or flooded houses in the last hours, by the rescuers – firefighters of the Fire Service of Rhodes, after corresponding emergency calls made to the Center of the Service, thus transporting them to safe places.

The first light of day showed images of “Apocalypse” in many areas of Rhodes, Faliraki and Ialyssos. During the day, the first ones are expected on the island levels of governmentas well as echelons of SYRIZAin order to establish the extent of the disasters and inform the affected and the local authorities about the problems that should be solved, as well as the immediate actions required.

Ialyssos lived the nightmare 11 years later. Only this time the phenomenon had greater intensity and even more serious consequences. The continuous, hours-long, torrential rainfall led to widespread flooding, sweeping away property and causing infrastructure problems.

According to the newspaper “Democratic”, the roads turned into rivers, while many houses and shops were flooded, causing incalculable damage to the local residents. The following day finds residents scrambling to protect their homes and property by all means, while services continue to receive dozens of calls for water pumping etc.

The destruction was not only limited to private properties, roads were blocked, and the water and electricity network suffered serious damage resulting in the water supply being cut off.

Since the morning, many crews from the municipality, the Region, and army teams have been in the area trying to restore the damage caused by the bad weather in its wake and to protect-as much as possible-the area from the new deterioration of the weather.

The wounds left behind by the bad weather are deep. Ialyssos measures her wounds left behind by the bad weather, which are deep. The only thing that is certain is that these images will remain engraved in everyone’s memory for years, while the memories of the previous disaster have not yet faded.

Experts are talking about a rare phenomenon of extreme weather conditions. If nothing else, the new disaster experienced by Ialyssos and Rhodes proves once again in the most … demonstrative way the inadequacy of the infrastructure and the need for better planning and protection from extreme weather phenomena, the frequency of which is expected to increase due to the climate crisis.

At the same time, in the settlement Carpenter 80 people are stranded, as the road leading to it is broken.

The entrance part of the OAED building collapsed

Collapsed part of the balcony of the main entrance to his service OAED in Themistokleous Sofouli street. Fortunately, the employees and traders had managed to get inside, so there were no injuries.

As can be seen from the photos captured by “Rodiaki”, the part of the central entrance collapsed at 8 and 15 this morning, thus causing relative disturbance to the staff working in the service as well as to the traders.

The service, according to what became known, has stopped its operation temporarily, until the necessary security checks are carried out by the competent technicians.

Lekkas to SKAI: “The rain that fell in Rhodes reached 75% of the water that fell in Valencia””

Speaking to and in “Today» with them Dimitris Oikonomou and Akis Pavlopoulosthe Professor of Natural Disasters, Efthymis Lekkasreported heavy rainfall reaching about 75% of Valencia’s rainfall. As he said “things could not be done as we have inherited technical projects which were designed in the 60s and 70s”.

“This environment does not change, in Ialyssos, for example, we have a 1.5 kilometer river which we covered in the 1980s. So the pipeline cannot receive the loads that we have during this period of time. In fact, the solution is to demolish this whole building and to keep the river open again, which is extremely difficult”, underlined Mr. Lekkas, adding:

“The infrastructure on the island is outdated. The bridge in Kremasti has not suffered anything, but it was designed five years ago. The rest of the bridges designed for Italians are very vulnerable.”