Limassol anti-flooding works prove successful as weather caused problems nationwide (updated)

A day after torrential rain and storms battered the island, Limassol mayor Nicos Nicolaides on Tuesday praised anti-flooding works carried out by the Limassol Sewerage Board (Sala).

He said that due to the works, the city did not experience the same issues it had in the past.

“Certainly, the major projects have not yet been finished, both in the city centre and in greater Limassol, but the contribution of the finished projects to the flood protection of our city is starting to be seen,” he said.

The flood protection, he continued, has been noticed particularly in the area of the medieval castle, as from the projects so far, about 20 per cent of the rainwater that ended up there was diverted to the river-bed.

Isolated thunderstorms and rain showers were expected to affect the southern and southwestern coasts of Cyprus on Tuesday.

The rain on Monday caused power cuts around the island but electricity authority (EAC) spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulou said that teams are out working to repair all the damages across the island, hopefully by the end of the day.

EAC has damages to fix across Cyprus, with one main task being the repair of a large power line that was struck by lightning at two different points in the Astromeritis-Peristerona area outside of Nicosia.

Another case Papadopoulou mentioned is in Odou in Larnaca, where a large tree fell on power lines and broke them.

In Larnaca all the damage has been repaired and power has been restored, Papadopoulou said, adding that teams were working from 3am on Tuesday in the area to fix damage in Oroklini.

Commenting on the work being done by EAC, Papadopoulou said that teams were going from home-to-home fixing damages to fuse boxes, which “takes time, as the team has to move from building to building.”

Meanwhile, the fire service said that they responded to 125 calls for help due to the weather on Monday.

According to the fire service, 104 of the incidents needed immediate attention, 68 of which were in Larnaca, 14 in Nicosia, 10 in Famagusta district, five in Limassol, five near Kofinou, and two in Paphos.

The fire service was called to open clogged road drains, pump flood waters from buildings, move fallen trees, and to tow cars stuck in flooded areas.

Meanwhile, reports in the media said that private boxes at the new Limassol stadium flooded as well.

Later in the day, the deputy Larnaca district officer, Evangelia Tsinikola said that two home in Dromoloxia’s refugee estates were flooded by the rain on Monday.

She added that they have assessed the damages and will estimate the cost of the funds needed to repair them.

Tsinikola said that the rain also caused rockslides in village roads in the district that will to be cleaned.

A road linking Arakapas and Dierona, where a rockslide crushed a double cab on Monday, has been reopened to traffic, police said.

In the north, reports said that some streets in Nicosia had flooded.

According to Yeni Duzen, the problem is due to the lack of drainage on the roads.

On Tuesday night, clouds are expected to gather on the coast and bring isolated storms on the southern coasts.

On Wednesday the weather will be partly cloudy with local rains and isolated storms, initially in the west and south and later inland and in the mountains.

On Thursday and Friday, the weather will be intermittently cloudy with isolated thunderstorms.

Temperatures are not expected to change until Friday remaining close to the seasonal average or slightly below.