Thousands Made Homeless By Storms In Greece

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29101, 13 January 1960, Page 11

Thousands Made Homeless By Storms In Greece

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rcc. 11 p.m.) ATHENS, January 12. About 800 houses collapsed or have been damaged beyond repair, one person was killed, and 10 injured in freak rainstorms sweeping northern Greece.

The centre of Comotini, a township of 35.000 inhabitants in Thrace, has been turned into a lake four to six feet deep and the whole area practically isolated. Roads and rail communications have been wrecked.

Between 10,000 and 12,000 persons have been made homeless, and several bridges, and large numbers of storehouses filled with grain and forage have been washed away.

Thousands of acres of cultivated land are submerged under several feet of water from two rivers which overflowed their banks.

The whole area has been declared in a state of emergency and Army units of engineers have been rushed to the spot to carry out rescue and salvage work.

Many persons spent nightmarish hours trying to save their lives by climbing on rooftops or trees before rescuers arrived.

Two railway bridges and several hundred yards of railway line have been destroyed or are under two to three feet of mud. Rail communication with Turkey has been cut. Thousands of sheep and goats have drowned or are in danger of drowning.

Two Cabinet Ministers are already on the spot supervising the rescue or relief work. One of the heaviest snowfalls in years blanketed most of Europe today, causing traffic chaos, communication cuts and possible damage to crops in southern countries where snow is seldom seen.

People stayed up late in Oporto, Portugal, to watch the rare sight of snow-covered streets and roofs. < Madrid had the heaviest snowfall for years during the night. The heavy snowfall brought the usual number of problems. Firemen saved swans frozen in a Vienna lake while snowploughs dug out buried cars in the city of Stockholm. In one icy-road crash 20 cars were involved.