AN EYEWITNESS yesterday reported three hurricanes in the Paphos district.
Fifty-five-year old Len Sayer, a former Hong Kong police officer, saw the twisters at 8am yesterday morning off the coast of Peyia.
“I had just been on the phone to my son, when the phone rang again and it was my neighbour asking us if we had seen the hurricane outside,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
Rushing outside onto the balcony Sayer and his wife were left awestruck at the sight before them.
“The first hurricane I saw formed on the sea like a water spout and started to move west along the coast towards Ayios Giorgios. Then I notice a second one forming – again on the sea – which proceeded to head towards my house,” he said.
The tornado grew and rose above the water and appeared to touch the sky it was so huge,” he said. “It was about 50 metres wide, very black and seemed to go on forever as it swirled powerfully towards us.”
The 55-year-old Briton reached for his camera as the destructive whirlwind came throttling towards his retirement home.
“It was just so amazing. I couldn’t let it go unrecorded. However, it was a tad disconcerting when I saw it head towards me.” Thankfully, before the twister hit his home, it veered 200 metres to the west, ripping across the surrounding countryside. It proceeded to completely flatten a goat herder’s hut and picked up wild debris and corrugated iron, flinging it violently in its wake as it forced its way up the hill.
“I saw it picking up corrugated sheets of iron as it whirled up along the hill to the west of our house,” Sayer said. “God knows what would have happened if it had hit a house. I’m convinced it would have taken tiles with it and caused extensive damage with the debris it picked up along the way. And someone standing in its path would have been killed for sure.”
The third hurricane formed east of his home on the sea and headed towards Paphos and out of sight. It was about 10-15 kilometres away and so he could not see it as clearly as the first two, he said.
“It was very scary. Particularly the second one coming towards me because it seemed the largest of the three as it was only 200 metres away from me.”
Sayer has lived in Cyprus for the past six years and although he had witnessed waterspouts in the past, he had never come across anything like this before.
“Even during my time in Hong Kong I’d seen typhoons but nothing like what I witnessed today,” he said.
Paphos police did not receive any reports on the incident or complaints of any damage.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
