Cyclone Ianos leaves 3 dead, causes extensive damage

Cyclone Ianos, has left three people dead and another reported missing, after the severe weather phenomena swept from the Ionian Islands through central Greece this weekend.

The casualties included an older woman pulled out of her house in Farsala, a farmer of Albanian descent, 63, and an older man whose roof collapsed in Kastania.

Another woman, 43, from Mouzaki is missing, after trying to escape the floods with her car which was found yesterday.

Ianos landed on the Ionian Islands on Thursday night, taking power out and causing extensive damage before moving east to the Peloponnese and central Greece, then to Crete.

According to the Fire Brigade, they received a total of 2,450 calls for help or pumping out of water as of the evening of September 17, especially in the areas of south Ionian, western Greece, Central Greece, the Peloponnese and Thessaly. Some are ongoing. Firefighters also freed 942 trapped in various situations.

Over the weekend, Civil Protection Deputy Minister for Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias has been touring the Ionian Islands of Kefalonia, Ithaca and Zakynthos, where the hurricane first landed in Greece on Thursday night.

The minister said that crews working round the clock in the midst of uprooted trees and infrastructure, and asserted the main power network would be restored in Zakynthos by nightfall.

According to the electricity distribution operator DEDDIE, power is gradually restored on all three islands. In Kefalonia, the northern section of the island has the greatest issues of restoring power, and new power posts had to be set up. In Ithaca, the northern section is also the hardest to restore power to. Zakynthos has some power but there are extensive problems in the Agios Nikolaos area network, and its cemetery.