Flood risk rises in western Attica after fires, experts warn

The fires that struck Attica this summer left behind deaths and extensive destruction. In western Attica and Boeotia, the blazes placed 27,000 residents in immediate danger and burned more than 200,000 stremmas of land.

Porto Germeno suffered some of the heaviest damage. The fires destroyed 116,000 stremmas of virgin forest, leaving a vast green area covered by blackened tree trunks. Seventy-eight homes were judged fit for demolition, while another 80 received a “yellow” classification.

Konstantinos Kladakis had just finished renovating his house in Porto Germeno so he could live there permanently. He told MEGA that the home burned completely after the work was completed. He and others managed to leave with only one travel bag each, he said.

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This year we completed all the work, and this year, unfortunately, everything burned down. Each of us took a travel bag, and unfortunately everything else we had burned.

The destruction has now raised fears of flooding. Satellite research found that ground-surface temperatures in the area have risen by as much as 14 degrees compared with the period before the fire. A study by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens examined damaged drainage basins in Livadostra, Porto Germeno, Psatha and Megara, and found a high risk of flooding in Porto Germeno and Megara.

Michalis Diakakis, an assistant professor of natural disasters at the university, said steep terrain combined with intense tectonic and geological features can nearly triple flood risk and multiply landslide risk sixfold. Local authorities have planned barriers made from trunks and branches across the area’s five streams, but residents are asking what will happen if severe weather arrives before that work is completed.

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In environments with steep slopes and intense tectonic and geological conditions, we have an almost threefold increase in flood risk and a sixfold increase in landslide risk.