A violent winter outbreak has wreaked havoc in Greece and Turkey. Istanbul Airport was closed on Monday due to a heavy snow storm.
Ice blocks caused the roof of the charging station to collapse. In Athens, many schools and vaccination centers were closed. Both countries reported power outages and traffic delays due to adverse weather conditions.
Turkish airport authorities have said that flight operations in Istanbul will be “temporarily suspended for safety reasons”. According to media reports, this was the first time since its opening in 2019 that Istanbul Airport was completely closed due to bad weather.
Video showing the chaos of the weather: Snow storm paralyzes Istanbul airport(01:03)
Due to the new heavy snowfall on Monday evening, the authorities advised residents of the capital to stay at home as a precaution.
Many accidents and long traffic jams
Many shopping centers in Istanbul closed early and delivery services stopped working. Children played on the ice and built snowmen in many squares in the city. Meanwhile, drivers had to deal with poor road conditions: many accidents occurred on steep sections of the road, and long traffic jams formed on the highways.
Snow also fell in large parts of Greece on Monday – even in the southern island of Crete. The Elpis drop, named after the Greek word for hope, caused temperatures to drop to minus 14 degrees Celsius in parts of the country at night. Schools in the greater metropolitan area of Athens, vaccination centers and parliament were closed.
Around Athens, many motorists got stuck in their cars due to poor traffic conditions. Police closed highway ramps north of the capital. “My wife hasn’t eaten anything since morning. We only had a small bottle of water with us,” a driver told Star TV.
The beaches are buried under the snow
The snow also hampered metro services to Athens airport. At first, however, there were no problems with air and ferry traffic. According to government spokesperson Giannis Economo, the authorities are working very hard to clear highways and other major roads. According to the Civil Defense, the snow is set to continue until Tuesday.
On the island of Mykonos, the beaches were under a white blanket of snow. In other Cyclades islands such as Andros, Naxos and Tinos, mountain villages were cut off from the outside world. On the island of Euboea, where devastating wildfires broke out in the summer, power was cut off in some villages. (AFP)
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