Erminio

 

*Erminio is the name of our latest storm. 

 Yesterday the skies opened and it rained long and hard. We had hours of very heavy rain and rumbling thunder. 

The red Saharan dust cloud  was so thick it felt as though we were captive inside an impenetrable red blanket.  Crete was worst affected and they had to close airports.

Two of our family homes, Jan's and Elli's, were flooded.  Elli had bad leaks in several rooms while Jan had a river running through her dining room and kitchen.  Never happened before. It was the huge endless cascade of water. And yet we had no drips or drops at all in our house. That's a first for us. It just depends where wind is directing the torrent

 Facebook messages from the Mayor  warned us of roads closed because of mud and debris and huge amounts of water elsewhere. Driving anywhere was dangerous . One car was washed into the sea.  Make that 3 cars.  

Water taxis and the car ferry were prohibited from crossing the strait.

Schools are closed today, Thursday, while the buildings are checked for damage and school yards are drained of flood waters. 

We spent the morning checking Facebook photos of the damage and watching tv news. TV crews arrived from Athens and covered the major damage

Fousa. The fertile plain just above our house with its small vineyards 

All the vineyards are completely under water now. Thick red slimy muddy water.  The red Saharan dust is supposed to contain vital minerals but also has toxic elements 

Daughter Danae's 'private' sandy beach has been changed completely and now has a stony sandbar and exposed  pipes

One of the 3 cars swept away onto the newly formed bar of stones and rubble .  Another car is completely under water 

The 3rd car entrapped under the collapsed bridge

The road above has almost completely fallen into the river bed

The old river bed, now calm.  The last time mother nature turned this back into a river was 2014.  Last night it was a powerful mass of raging flood water

The Mayor and his work force are striving to repair the roads and get rid of the debris.  Hotels in this area were preparing for the Protestant (or Catholic) Easter

All my family know this area well. It's the main tourist beach. That's the wall of Helen Apartments on the left and cousin Mike lives just a little further down the river bed.  His house is slightly higher up so no damage.

Across on the mainland, at the Lemon Forest where Jan lives, the road has been closed because of the piles of debris and mud washed down from yet another old river bed.  She has hardly dug herself out of the last storm and is now engulfed by another.  She can't get her bike out and is just a little too far to walk into town for groceries. 

The Municipality will have to do some fast clean up there because the road below her is the main road connecting  Poros and Galatas with all the towns further south, Ermioni, Porto Heli and ferries to the islands of Hydra and Spetses

*Erminio

meaning strength and wholeness 

Italian not greek