STRONG winds and rain yesterday wreaked havoc across the island, injuring several people and inflicting considerable damage.
The Limassol and Paphos were the hardest hit, but the whole of Cyprus suffered from the storms, which lashed the entire eastern Mediterranean yesterday.
Reports from around the country spoke of uprooted trees, cut power cables, floods, stranded drivers and roofs and water tanks blown away by strong gusts.
At one point, the wind in Paphos was clocked at 140 kilometres per hour.
Several villages in the district were hit by a tornado, accompanied by torrential rain, which ripped the roofs of many farms in the Amargeti, Axylou and Fyti areas, killing dozens of sheep and goats.
The tornado uprooted trees, solar panels and water tanks, shattered windows and caused power cuts in many areas, trapping many people in lifts.
Such was the power of the wind that a telephone box in Paphos was ripped from its base and thrown several metres further down the road.
Drivers were lucky to escape serious injury as tress fell across roads, blocking traffic for hours.
The winds also destroyed the state television transmitter at the village of Tsada – its aerial collapsing like a matchstick tower.
By 3.30pm, the fire service said it had responded to over 190 calls for help across the island – 100 in Limassol alone.
A woman from Nicosia was injured after a huge tree crushed her convertible car while she was stopped at the traffic lights near the Kykkos Monastery building in the capital.
The fire service had to scramble to the scene to free the 50-year-old anesthetist from the wreckage of her car.
She was rushed to hospital, where she was treated and kept for observation, police said.
A second vehicle was also damaged, but no one was in it when the tree fell.
In other areas of the district, the fire service had responded to 40 calls by early afternoon to provide assistance for fallen trees, collapsed farm dwellings, stranded drivers and roofs and water tanks blown away by the wind.
Several farms were destroyed in the villages of Astromeritis and Yeri, killing livestock and sending roofs flying on to power cables.
In Astromeritis, the fields were filled with the remains of roofs from nearby farms, which were picked up by the wind like cards, leaving the animals exposed to the elements and their owners in despair.
The phenomena caused extensive power cuts in all areas, forcing the Electricity Authority to activate its emergency plans, recalling all personnel and dispatching them to repair hundreds of damaged cables and fallen poles.
The Chairman of the authority, George Georgiades, said that 600 personnel were out at 8.30pm last night repairing damages.
The hardest hit areas in terms of power were Nicosia and Limassol, with 200 cuts recorded in Nicosia only.
The scene was similar in Limassol with strong gusts spreading havoc across the district – snapping huge trees like toothpicks, and sweeping away anything on rooftops.
Four British women had to be treated in hospital after they were hit by pieces of glass from the shattered window of the cafeteria they were sitting in.
The incident happened just before 1pm.
Three were treated and discharged, while the fourth was kept in as a precaution.
Just earlier a falling wall lightly injured a child in the face.
A family of Turkish Cypriots in the Turkish Cypriot quarter of the city narrowly escaped serious injury after a tree came crashing down on their car.
Pensioners in several villages around Limassol were trapped in their homes while tornados hit Zakaki and Ayios Athanasios, causing damage to homes, garages and cars.
A yacht and a ship anchored at the port were also damaged, police said.
The scale of the disaster has prompted the government to order all personnel working for to the telecommunications authority (CyTA) and the public works department back to their jobs to repair the damage.
In a written statement, CyTA said problems were experienced in both fixed and mobile telephony services.
The situation in Larnaca was similar to other districts.
The situation was worst at around lunchtime, forcing a flight bound for Larnaca airport to be diverted to Paphos.
Most of the damage was caused in rural areas buffeted by the heavy winds.
Crews were scrambled to the areas, with the special rescue unit responding to 14 situations around the district.
Police said many roads in Larnaca were blocked either by fallen trees or floods.
Throughout the day, police were issuing warnings about closed roads all over the island.
The weather service said last night that more extreme phenomena should be expected in the next few days, with regional storms and winds reaching force five to six, even seven to eight in some regions.
Snow should also be expected, the service said.
On the plus side, Agriculture Minister Timis Efthymiou said yesterday that if the rain continued at the same rate for the next three days, the island’s dams would reach 100 per cent capacity for the first time in the island’s history.
Cyprus has 17 dams with a total capacity of 197 million cubic metres of water.
Their capacity yesterday had reached 72 per cent.
