Pummelled by rain, Lasithi Plateau floods for fifth time

Authorities in eastern Crete closed the Lasithi Plateau to traffic to prevent accidents after the area flooded following four days of intense rainfall, local mayor Giannis Stefanakis told state-run news agency ANA on Thursday.

Stefanakis said this is the firth time this year the plain has flooded and that the intensity and duration of the storms, which started on Monday evening and stopped on Thursday morning, were unprecedented for the season. 

"We will wait a few hours, but I think today we will be able to make an assessment of the destruction. Local producers are worried, because they had part of their harvest in their warehouses and they are waiting to see how much overall damage they have suffered," he said.

Stefanakis said he was informed that the amount of water falling in the Aposelemi Dam during the rainstorms reached 40 thousand cubic meters per hour....