One dead, seven hurt as gales whip the country

Winds cause power cuts, fell trees and sink boats

Giant waves over 12 meters high, stirred up by gale-force southerly winds blowing in the Saronic Gulf yesterday, smash over a breakwater at the Zea marina in northeastern Piraeus. The breakwater was broken at four points, while several vessels were damaged and two sank.

Strong gales lashed much of the country yesterday, leaving one person dead and seven injured, with wind speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour disrupting sea and air transport, uprooting trees, damaging boats and cutting power lines.

A 52-year-old seaman on the Panaghia Psariani ferry, Alexandros Petralis, suffered a fatal heart attack after falling into the port of Psara, in the eastern Aegean, as the crew struggled to maneuver in choppy seas. Five people were injured in Attica by trees, metal signposts and other heavy objects felled by the wind. Among the victims were a nurse struck by a tree in the courtyard of the central Athens Elpis Hospital, and a woman hit by a branch in Kolonaki. The fire brigade was called to handle over 500 incidents of fallen objects in the Greater Athens area, including a cypress tree that fell onto the small medieval church of Aghioi Pantes, behind the Panathinaikos soccer ground.

Two people were also injured at the Zea marina, in Piraeus, after winds over 10 Beaufort lashed the area between 7 and 9 a.m., causing severe damage to the breakwater and sinking two pleasure boats. Vessels were also damaged in the southern Attica port of Lavrion, where winds clocked 12 on the Beaufort scale, and ferries were swept away from their moorings in Rafina and Kymi, while 16 domestic flights were canceled.