Velventos: Two months without electricity the village of Katafygi

Populated blockade for about two and a half months, as the last permanent residents were forced to leave by army helicopter due to bad weather “Diomidis”, without electricity since January 11 and without asphalt road connection for two years (!) Is the martyr village “Shelter” of the municipality of Velvento, Kozani, in the mountainous area of ​​Pieria.

“Because the electricity network is currently blocked, it has a lot of precipitation, it passes through ravines and dense forest to reach 1,450 meters altitude, it is difficult for HEDNO crews and lumberjacks to reach the points even with special vehicles, so to collect the hundreds of fallen logs, to collect them, to remove them and then to locate the damage or the damages that it has suffered in different places from the bad weather “, he emphasizes in GRTimesthe mayor of Velvento, Manolis Stergiou.

“We have been asking for a lighter vehicle for a long time, maybe we can do something more now that the snow has stopped, but we are still waiting,” he added.

The few permanent residents left by helicopter

As the mayor himself states in GRTimes, in the village the permanent residents, ie those who live in the area and in winter, do not exceed the number of fingers of one hand. “This is a family that deals with vegetables, for the owners of two taverns that operate in the village along with two hotel units that did not work this year due to the situation although the Shelter is a mountain destination, an employee of the municipality and another resident. All of them from Katerini, as they could not leave by road, about 300 trees had fallen due to the bad weather, they were removed from the settlement in January by an army helicopter. “Today inside the village there is a lot of damage to the cables that need to be repaired, however the village is still blocked,” notes Mr. Stergiou.
No asphalt connection for two years

The head of the Local Government does not fail to note that the approach to the village is a very difficult case. “It is made of a dirt road that crosses a forest provincial road network from Velvento to Agia Kyriaki. We have cleaned this road three or four times so that we can reach the village, we cleaned it yesterday as well. This happened, because the traffic on the asphalt road has been cut off from the bad weather that occurred on July 7, 2020 (!). Since then no one can cross it, it has been cut in four places. As a municipality we have submitted a restoration study which is ready to be assigned to a contractor. But here we also need the help of the state. “Our municipality is small and we do not have the possibilities of special management in such conditions,” he emphasizes.

In a state of emergency since August ’20

In fact, bad weather due to the mountain volume of 1,450 meters in which the village is located, often faces problems from bad weather.

“Imagine that the settlement has been declared and is in a state of emergency since August 2020. At one moment we remove the snow to make it accessible and at another it refills. However, I repeat that for such operations our means are not enough, the State should also help “, underlines the mayor of Velvento, Manolis Stergiou.

Martyr village, homeland of Zorba – The efforts for a Museum

According to the data, Katafygi is located in the top five villages that are built at a high altitude in Greece.

In October 1943, the 1st Pan-Macedonian Congress of EPON was held in the village as many people of the village took an active part in the struggle of resistance against the Nazi troops, which on December 20 of the same year, burned it to the ground.

Also according to the updated data, Katafygi is considered the homeland of Alexis Zorbas, who became known as the hero of Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel “Life and State of Alexis Zorbas”.

For this reason, the mayor of Velvento, Manolis Stergiou, announced the establishment of a Museum dedicated to his memory. “Once we overcome all these problems and the village becomes habitable and functional again, this is what we intend to do,” he stressed in GRTimes.

Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news