Flood catastrophe in Western Thrace

Heavy rain during weekend in Western Thrace caused flood, affecting the life seriously. Rivers overflew their banks, resulting in floods in Western Thrace villages. Reportedly, on Sunday, heavy rain ruined 14 villages.

Greek government announced state of emergency following the catastrophe on Sunday. Additionally the army send rescue vehicles to the region to help the victims. Melikli village, in Gumulcine (Komotini) was seriously affected by the flood and was evacuated completely. Heavy rain also affected Peloponisos region in the southern part of the country. Army also helped people in that region.

Second catastrophe in Greece since summer…

This second catastrophe, after fire event caused serious concern in the country. While the country is trying to relieve economic and social impacts of fire catastrophe that happened in summer, this second event re-challenges the country. The floods also ruined farmlands other than residents, and this is likely to put a pressure on Western Thrace economic performance.

Halit Habipoglu, chairman of Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, stated that Western Thrace would be affected economically and socially from the recent catastrophe.

“I wish all our people a full recovery after this sad event. This catastrophe caused a lot of economic and social problem for our country. Our people had to evacuate their homes. In addition to current problems, our region economy will be badly affected from this disaster while most of our people earn their life on agriculture. We hope the government will offset our farmers’ losses.” said Habipoglu.