Storm Daniel Forces Greek PM To Postpone Annual Economic Speech

At least four people have died and more than six were still missing on Thursday after storm Daniel swept across central Greece, triggering landslides, destroying roads and bridges and carrying away dozens of cars.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis postponed an annual economic speech scheduled for this weekend and will instead visit areas hit since Monday by torrential rain that has flooded homes and destroyed key infrastructure, including power poles.

“The state mechanism’s absolute priority right now is the rescue and evacuation of people from the areas affected,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told a press briefing.

“Our country is facing for the third day a phenomenon unlike any other we have seen in the past,” Marinakis said, before announcing that the recently re-elected leader’s main economic policy speech would be held in the middle of next week instead of Saturday.

The mainland port city of Volos, the surrounding mountainous Pelion area and the cities of Karditsa and Trikala were among the worst-hit areas.

Heavy rainfall, which came days after a two-week deadly wildfire died out in the north and authorities said was the most extreme on record, has turned many villages in the low-lying area of Karditsa, in the mainland Thessaly plain, into a lake.

Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said during a press briefing on Thursday that six people had been reported missing in the area of Karditsa.

A senior fire brigade official told Reuters that the body of a man was found in the town of Domokos. The bodies of two men and a woman were found on Wednesday across the region.