CLEAN-up crews yesterday worked to restore damage caused by torrential rain, which flooded homes and roads and caused power cuts across the island.
No injuries were reported.
The hardest hit was Larnaca district with some 25 homes flooded, causing significant damage.
Fire service crews arrived in the area on Friday evening to help residents with their flooded homes.
Around 3,000 chickens drowned when water swept a farm in the Dromolaxia farming estate while €5,000 worth of damage was caused to a restaurant on the Pentashinos coast.
The Larnaca fire service responded to over 50 calls for assistance, mainly to help stranded drivers and to pump water from flooded dwellings.
The road network was restored by yesterday morning.
Island-wide, the fire service responded to 180 calls for assistance –154 linked to the heavy rainfall.
A spokesman said the service also responded to 11 cases of fire in the past 24 hours.
Serious problems were also caused in the villages of Alambra, Shia, Pera Horio Nisou and Dhali in the Nicosia district as rivers overflowed.
The Alambra to Lymbia road was closed for hours while homes were flooded in Shia and also in Athienou..
Civil defence and district administration crews provided residents with assistance.
“Our crews are in the houses, helping people clean up. We are ready, in cooperation with the civil defence to provide temporary shelter to people until work is complete and they can return to their homes,” Nicosia district officer Argyris Papanastasiou said.
Dhali community leader Leonidas Kalenos said there were problems in some houses but the swift intervention of the authorities averted potentially worse trouble.
Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said the civil defence and district administrations were on alert to tackle potential problems.
The minister said problems in Alambra were mainly due to the construction of the Nicosia to Limassol motorway, which divided the village in three.
He said infrastructure work currently underway would help limit the problems.
In the Famagusta district crops were damaged and three fishing boats sunk in the Liopetri river.
A problem of a different sort occurred in Kiti. The gates of the reservoir were open at the time, resulting in the loss of huge quantities of water, which ended up in the sea instead of being stored.
According to the meteorological service between 8pm on Friday and 8am yesterday, Larnaca saw 60.8 millimetres of rain with the normal for December being 98. Twenty-five millimetres fell in Nicosia and 44 in Akrotiri, in the Limassol district.
The Met Service forecasted more rain and a further drop in temperature for today.
Snow was also expected in Troodos and other areas, the service said.
“Rain may not cover so many areas but at some localities they could be intense, accompanied by strong winds,” Met Service official Haris Zahariades said.
