Severe weather in Crete left one person dead, triggered widespread flooding, and caused structural damage, leading authorities to declare a state of emergency in Mylopotamos as regional officials warn of continued heavy rainfall through the weekend.
A powerful storm system lashed the island of Crete, submerging roads, homes, and businesses while leaving communities across Rethymno, Heraklion, and Lasithi to assess the destruction. The extreme weather turned roadways into rushing torrents and generated rainfall totals in a single day that rivaled an entire year’s worth of precipitation in Athens, according to meteorological data.
Emergency Declared After Fatal Storm
Regional authorities, municipalities, and local agencies remained on high alert in Rethymno as the region grappled with the aftermath of the initial storm surge. The severe weather claimed the life of an 80-year-old livestock breeder in Karines, who left for his animal pen on Wednesday night and was subsequently found dead following a search operation involving police and firefighters.
The municipality of Mylopotamos was placed under a civil protection state of emergency due to the severity of the infrastructure destruction, leading officials to close all local schools and nurseries. The mountain settlement of Zonianá saw the Zonianós River overflow, sending floodwaters and debris surging through streets, damaging retaining walls, and crippling local water and sewage networks. Extensive damage also hit the sewage network running from Axos to Apladianána, alongside major disruptions to both primary and agricultural road networks.
Residential structural failures accompanied the floods. In Kynigiana, a vacant home partially collapsed, while two additional houses suffered partial collapses in Veni.
Floodwaters Destroy Homes in Heraklion
Footage from the Orange Press Agency documented severe residential flooding in Roukani within the municipality of Heraklion, where surging waters also destroyed a concrete staircase and sent large boulders crashing down without injuring any passersby. Residents recounted harrowing scenes as water invaded their living spaces.
I had just bought this sewing machine. And I had it inside its box with its parts. It was in the middle room, it left from there, it floated like it was on the Titanic, and it ended up there. How many meters is that? At least fifteen meters. I felt like I was on the Titanic, only on the Titanic the water was clean, whereas I was in the mud. A homeowner
Another resident in the area described experiencing the disaster firsthand as the rising floodwaters transformed neighborhood streets into violent torrents.
Rainfall Breaks Records as More Storms Approach
Data compiled by the National Observatory of Athens automated weather station network highlighted the sheer volume of precipitation. Anogeia in Rethymno recorded 361.4 millimeters of rain between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon. In Chania, precipitation reached nearly 200 tons of water per stremma, while Lasithi recorded nearly 240 tons per stremma.
Meteorologists noted that the water dropped in a single day equaled Athens’ total annual rainfall. Stavros Dafis, a physicist, meteorologist, and member of the Meteo unit at the National Observatory of Athens, warned that heavy downpours with high intensity would persist across semi-mountainous regions of northern Crete, including Zonianá and Anogeia.
According to the Meteo unit’s Rainfall Episode Index (RPI), the incoming storm system for Saturday is classified as Category 4, indicating very serious weather.