Greece’s Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos has called on the country's regional authorities to be on high alert against the incoming weather front dubbed 'Geryon', which is expected to hit the country on Sunday.
Severe storms already hit parts of the country overnight causing damage to homes and roads.
Thassos experienced intense weather phenomena in the last 24 hours, with roads flooding. Streams and irrigation canals overflowed, many sections of the road network are now inaccessible, and Fire Brigade assistance was needed to evacuate residents as their homes were flooded.
Panagiotopoulos spoke with local authorities in the town of Olympiada, in the northeastern part of the peninsula of Chalkidiki, where he paid a visit early on Saturday morning to help assess flood damages from the severe rainfall that hit the area overnight. "There is no time to waste," Panagiotopoulos stressed during a broad meeting attended by the chiefs of the General Secretariat for Civil Protection, the fire brigade, central and local government officials.
The minister stressed there is a need for vigilance and avid planning to avoid what he called the worst outcome, in view of the incoming Geryon weather front.
In a weather alert issued on Saturday afternoon, the weather front 'Geryon' is expected to develop in three steps over three days: first, rain and local storms will arrive on Sunday evening, excepting eastern Macedonia and Thrace, yet reaching to islands in the Sporades and all the way to western Crete, then on Sunday evening until Monday evening weather phenomena will take a turn for the worst with a massive storm front scaling through the country from the east to the west. Finally, Geryon will, on Tuesday, reach all the remaining regions in the south, the east and the rest of the island regions. Winds are expected to reach up to 10 Beaufort in some regions.
Geryon is explicitly forecast to affect Athens in full effect.
