Efforts continue to assess damage from Halkidiki storm
Efforts continued on Friday to restore power to all parts of Halkidiki as state officials continued their assessments of a freak storm that killed seven people and injured scores more.
The process of examining the extent of damages to cultivations, homes and businesses so that compensation can be calculated and distributed was being overseen by Interior Minister Panagiotis Theodorikakos and Agricultural Development Minister Makis Voridis.
Theodorikakos on Wednesday said that a total of 500,000 euros would be given as an emergency supplement to the municipalities of Nea Propontida, Kassandra and Sithonia so that damage to infrastructure can be repaired immediately.
The crisis was the first real test for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government.
The General Secretariat for Civil Protection and regional authorities in northern Greece had been put on alert from Wednesday evening after the National Meteorological Service (EMY) warned of gale-force storms in central and northern Greece.
As a state of emergency was declared in Halkidiki on Thursday, Mitsotakis cancelled all his planned meetings so that he could be in constant contact with the relevant ministers.
Later in the day, state inspectors were quickly dispatched to the area to assess the scale of the damage to agricultural cultivations and infrastructure.
Mitsotakis also ordered the government spokesman Stelios Petsas to take the necessary action to ensure that the European emergency number 112 is fully functional. A plan to overhaul the secretariat, which Mitsotakis heralded several months ago, is also to move ahead.
