TORRENTIAL rain and strong winds yesterday caused chaos in Nicosia, with the Fire Department responding to dozens of calls as parts of the capital flooded.
“The calls concerned flooded basements, flooded roads and people trapped in their cars,” Nicosia Chief Fire Officer Miltiades Miltiadous told the Cyprus Mail.
Fire Department Spokeswoman Liza Kemmidji said the Fire Department had tended to more than 50 calls yesterday.
Rain also fell in the areas of Larnaca and Famagusta. “Not much happened in the other districts,” Kemmidji added.
The Fire Department appealed to the public to clean the gutters on their verandas, adding much of the flooding was caused by blocked gutters and drains, and in many cases the water went into homes. Most emergency calls the Fire Department received were from the areas of Acropolis, Dasoupoli, and Aglandjia and generally the centre of Nicosia.
Miltiadou told the Mail that, “The Fire Department headquarters in Athalassa were struck by lightning and our telephone centre lines were down and we had to give out other emergency numbers, but now the fault has been fixed and people can contact us on 22-802150.
“The winds were so strong that we were called to an incident on Pindarou Street were a plastic table was lifted by the strong winds four metres high into a tree and we had to get it down.”
The Pedieos River in Nicosia started to flow because of the heavy rainfall.
The coming three days are expected to see “isolated storms, rainfall, strong winds, hail and falling temperatures,” the Director of the Meteorological Service, Kyriacos Theophilou said yesterday.
Theophilou said the region over Cyprus was affected by a cold air mass from the north-east, which is creating instability. The focus is mainly on the central and eastern regions.
Conditions were so bad that police had to warn drivers of poor visibility in the Archangelos region and on the motorway from Nicosia to Mammari. Lefkotheo and Elias Papakyriacou roads in Archangelos had to be temporarily closed to traffic because of the flooding.
On the Nicosia-Limassol highway, in the Moni area, the stormy weather led a lorry to lose control, crashing into the central reservation, and leading to the closure of two lanes of the motorway.
When there is heavy rainfall, police advise drivers to be particularly careful on the motorway, to comply with the instructions of police on duty, and to keep a safe distance from the car and in front and keep their headlights on.
