AFTER months of drought, the heavens yesterday showed no signs of abating as torrential rains continued to pour down on the island.
In the mountains, residents welcomed the reality of a white Christmas as villages above Amiandos were blanketed in snow. Roads to Troodos were unpassable to vehicles without chains or four-wheel drive, as snow levels rose to 15 centimetres in the square and 25 centimetres on Mount Olympus.
Police issued announcements throughout the day warning motorists to be very careful, with a number of roads closed due to flooding or fallen debris.
The hardest hit areas were in the Limassol district, where fire services received hundreds of emergency calls.
Despite the long-awaited rain, the Water Development Department said a lot more was needed before it impacted the dams, which remained at an all time low.
Senior technician Fedros Roussis said yesterday’s rain measurements saw an inflow of 200,000 cubic metres into the island’s dams, including 90,000 cubic metres at Kouris dam, 40,000 cubic metres at Asprokremmos and 27,000 cubic metres at the Evretou and Arminou dams.
“This is a good start and we hope to see it continue,” said Roussis.
The water technician said this was first rainfall in December and that we were still much behind last year’s inflow.
“Last year, there was a drought and we still had six million [cubic metres of water],” he said.
Unfortunately, the past two days’ rain had barely any effect on the island’s water reservoirs, which were currently only 3.1 per cent full.
“But this can be overturned if the good rainfall continues,” said Roussis.
Even if the dams have not immediately benefited from the heavy rain, accounts of floods and closed roads were reported.
In Limassol, the fire services were repeatedly called out to pump water from flooded homes and to offer assistance to stranded motorists, while in Asomatos one family was spotted emerging from their flooded garden in a boat.
The main problems were in the Zakaki area, with municipality crews were called in to dig a four metre wide and two and a half metre deep river to absorb excess water flowing in from northern regions and communities, including Ypsonas and Polemidia.
Next year, Limassol municipality has plans to launch four €60 million anti-flooding projects, which would help resolve the problems, Mayor Andreas Christou said.
Despite the flood of emergency calls, Fire Services head Andreas Nicolaou said the situation was under control across the country.
All fire departments and local authorities remained on standby to offer emergency assistance.
In Larnaca, Christmas decorations along Athens Avenue suffered extensive damage from Monday afternoon’s tornado that whipped along the beach front.
Municipality officials yesterday battled the rains to clear the damaged goods, which exceeded €85,000.
Police warnings were issued for the following roads: Mazotos-Kiti, Alektora-Pissouri and Alektora-Plataniskia, Tsada-Stroumbi, Tsada-Kathikas, Peyia-Kathikas, Tsada-Stroumbi, Kathikas-Yiolou, Nicosia-Limassol-Paphos motorway, Nicosia-Larnaca motorway by Lymbia, Orkondas-Kalopanayiotis-Pedoulas, Kambos-Pyrgos, Platres-Troodos and Saittas-Troodos.
By yesterday afternoon, the Lefkara-Vavatsinia road was blanketed in heavy fog and visibility was limited, while the Asomatos-Fasouri road was flooded and deemed unpassable.
Meanwhile the harbour and marine police cancelled a scheduled event due to the bad weather, which they said would be rescheduled at a later day.
According to the Met Office, the rain is expected to continue today.
Head weatherman Kyriakos Theofilou said rain and showers would continue to pour down on the island throughout today. After that the weather is said to clear, but with temperatures set to drop to an average of 11 degrees inland tomorrow. The sky will remain clear on Boxing Day with temperatures expected to rise.
