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At least two people died after a “medicane,” a rare Mediterranean hurricane, downed trees, cut off power and flooded streets in Greece.
Storm Ianos hit the Ionian Islands and western Peloponnese on Friday before hitting the center of the country on Saturday.
Greece’s meteorological agency warned of damage and threats to life, as it issued alerts for many areas.
An elderly woman was found dead in a flooded house in Farsala and the body of a 63-year-old man was discovered near a hospital in Karditsa.
“We are dealing with a total catastrophe,” a Farsala resident told state television.
Areas of Karditsa, one of the largest plains in Greece, about 125 miles (200 km) north of Athens, were flooded with water and a bridge collapsed.
The fire service said it had received more than 2,450 calls since the storm began, rescuing people, cutting down trees and pumping water from homes and businesses.
Five ships also sank on Friday off the holiday islands of Zakynthos (also known as Zante) and Lefkada, the coast guard said.
Greece’s civil protection agency declared a state of emergency in Kefalonia, Ithaca and Zakynthos due to power outages in many areas.
Cephalonia Mayor Theofilos Michalatos said no one was injured, but houses, roads and water facilities were damaged.
The storm reached the Athens area on Saturday, but there have been no reports of damage so far. Trains between the capital and the second city of Thessaloniki were suspended.
A woman cleans outside a house in Zakynthos
Firefighters remove a fallen tree in Zakynthos
A medicane is a hybrid phenomenon with “some characteristics of a tropical cyclone and others of a mid-latitude storm,” according to the UN World Meteorological Organization.
They have strong winds revolving around a central core and torrential rains, but they have a smaller diameter than hurricanes and do not last as long, usually 24 to 48 hours.
These storms first appeared in Greece in 1995 and, although they are much less common than hurricanes, they have become more frequent in recent years.
