Limassol bore the brunt of the heavy rainfall that began in areas of Cyprus in the early hours of Saturday.

The coastal city in the southwestern part of the island was the mostly hit by torrential rain with the Fire Service responding to more than 200 calls for assistance since the early hours today.

As rainfall began in the early hours, the light of day revealed images of flooded roads, houses and basements and stranded cars.

Nicos Nicolaides, the city Mayor, attended a crisis meeting with Fire Service Chief Marcos Trangolas and representatives of other competent services.

Speaking to the press, Nicolaides said the situation is difficult but manageable.

He said the municipality’s services have been mobilised since 01:30 this morning to clean the roads from debris and remove water.
I hope with the weather change the problems will be addressed he said.

Nicolaides said no city could be prepare for such weather elements, adding that Limassol will need another two years to complete its anti-flood infrastructure.

“We need another two years to complete the anti-flood projects in the northern part of the city with a budget exceeding €30 million,” he said.
On his part, Marcos Trangolas, the Fire Service chief said 33 crews and a total of 150 persons from all involved services are operating to address the problems.

Pafos, at the southwestern coast of the island was also hit by heavy rainfall, with the Fire Service and municipality services responding to calls to pump water from flooded houses and basement as well to clean road water drains.

On Friday, the Department of Meteorology issued a yellow weather alert that would take effect as of Saturday morning until the afternoon, forecasting wide-spread rain.

The weather system did not affect to same extent Larnaca and the Famagusta in the south and southeastern coast of the island as well as the capital Nicosia, with Fire Service saying that no serious problems were recorded.

Leave a Reply