Athenians mop up after storm
Efforts continued yesterday to clean up the city after Monday’s freak storm that flooded homes and businesses, trapped dozens of people in buildings, cars and elevators and cut transport and communications. Public Order Minister Vasso Papandreou surveyed the damage, promising financial assistance for victims. People whose property was damaged were to receive 600 euros each in initial aid. Areas worst hit by flooding were Moschato, Neo Faliron, Rendi and Votanikos, where about 1,000 homes and businesses were damaged. The fire brigade continued to receive calls yesterday to pump water out of basements. About 100,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity, as 58 medium-tension lines were still out of action. Only 25 of 80 low-tension substations had been repaired. Traffic lights were still not working on main roads such as Pireos Street at the corner of Kifissou and Rendi, on Liosion Avenue and other central routes. Surgeries and laboratories at the Sotiria pulmonary hospital flooded, forcing the transfer of patients to another building. The overflow of a watercourse in Papagou flooded basements in the nearby Giorgos Gennimatas Hospital, although the hospital’s director, Alekos Holevas, said the patients were all safe and the functioning of the hospital had not been affected. The old Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway line was back in operation yesterday morning, although there were still flood waters at Attiki station. Yesterday evening the Metro line from Sepolia to Omonia was back in operation. Papandreou said compensation beyond the emergency aid would depend on the extent of the damage, but she said the State was willing to cover the costs of rented accommodation for those whose homes were uninhabitable. «The widening of the Kifissos (riverbed) is a major road and anti-flooding project, most of which has been completed. The problems were due to the narrowing at the point where work continues,» she said, adding that eventually the capacity of the Kifissos River would be tripled. Papandreou also said that illegal construction in previous decades had resulted in the filling in of 500 kilometers of watercourses in Attica.
