Extreme weather: Fires and floods left this Greek village with no hope

Residents face a bleak future after 70% of Sesklo was wiped out by fires and floods, writes Louisa Gouliamaki

Saturday 16 December 2023 06:30 GMT

Farmer Christina Gkareli (right) and a family member move a bed frame after Storm Elias flooded her house, in the central Greek village of Sesklo (Reuters)

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The fires came first. Then the floods. In the small village of Sesklo in central Greece, 46-year-old Vasilis Tsiamitas has felt the extremes of both freak weather phenomena this summer, turning Greece into a climate change hotspot.

Storm Elias flooded his house, damaged his beach bar and swept away his car in September, finishing off what was left weeks earlier by Storm Daniel, Greece’s most intense on record, and a July wildfire that scorched his family’s almond grove.

Debris is scattered in front of Vasilis Tsiamitas’s house after flooding hit Sesklo (Reuters)

Tsiamitas inspects the damage at his beach bar in Chrissi Akti, also known as Golden Beach (Reuters)

“God only knows how I will get past this,” says Tsiamitas, standing outside his two-storey house. The front door is off its hinges, propped up against a wall next to wooden boards soaked by floodwater.

Sesklo, a village of about 800 residents near the port city of Volos and home to one of Europe’s oldest prehistoric settlements, has survived natural disasters through the centuries. But its eldest residents, Tsiamitas says, have never experienced anything like this year’s devastation.

Tsiamitas cleans the yard at his house after the flood (Reuters)

Burned trees stand outside St John’s Church after July’s wildfire (Reuters)

The wildfire that broke out in July was burning uncontrolled for at least two days. Sesklo residents were evacuated in time but the flames, fanned by strong winds, burnt through farmland and groves, destroying approximately 70 per cent of the village’s almond and olive oil production, says Tsiamitas.

In early September, Storm Daniel hit Thessaly after Greece’s longest heatwave in more than 30 years. It killed 16 people and turned the area into an inland sea, destroying homes and farms and wiping out swathes of crops.

Tsiamitas looks over the damage caused by the wildfire, from the burned-out St John’s Church (Reuters)

Children’s toys and books sit covered in mud at Tsiamitas’s house (Reuters)

Weeks later, Elias, a less intense but unexpected storm, was the final straw.

“We should learn our lesson,” Tsiamitas says, looking at stumps of burnt almond trees. “We need to uproot them ... we need to plant them again. Again and again, we need to start everything from scratch.”