Helicopters winched people from rooftops and military personnel used rubber boats to rescue families from floodwaters up to 3 meters deep in central Greece on Friday after a devastating rainstorm killed at least 10 people.
Storm Daniel, which meteorologists said was the worst to hit the country since records began in 1930, pummelled Greece for three days, leaving a trail of ruin after a record summer heatwave that had touched off huge wildfires.
Homes were swept away by torrents, bridges collapsed, roads were made impassable, power lines fell and crops in the fertile Thessaly plain were wiped out.
Civil protection authorities confirmed a death toll of 10, with four people missing. It said 1,700 people had been rescued in total, among them 296 airlifted away from their homes. Residents said the water was 3 metres (9 ft) deep in places.
Dozens of villages in the region were submerged. Hundreds of people were still stranded. Residents, many of them farmers, were despondent at the work of a lifetime disappearing in hours.
