The week beginning Monday 14th September 2020.
Earlier in the week we had heard that a storm system was developing south of Italy with the potential of travelling east towards the Ionian islands. We both like keeping an eye on the weather so we were tracking it as it ventured across the Ionian Sea from North Africa.
Information courtesy of Ventusky
Information courtesy of Ventusky
Nothing quite prepares you for it and for me the expectation of it arriving is mentally draining.
The Medicane (Mediterranean hurricane), named Ianos by the National Observatory of Athens, arrived on our doorstep on Thursday 17th September 2020 at approximately 16.00.
There was heavy rain and strong winds. The wind got stronger by the night time and was blowing from the South East directly towards the front of the house. Our house is strategically positioned so that the front of the house doesn’t normally get the brunt of the weather but this time it took it all. Even the overhang all along the front of the house couldn’t stop the wind from driving the rain under the front door. Towels out!
The wind seemed to howl through one of the patio doors. I’m not sure if it is faulty or I didn’t close it properly when we closed the shutters before the storm arrived. At one point the patio door seemed like it would blow in on us! Frightening!
We tried to get some sleep but impossible. The power went off at around 2am Friday morning. Fortunately we had a torch and candles. Looking outside it was pitch black.
No sleep for me though I eventually drifted off at about 6.00 am on Friday morning.
At 7.00 am I woke up and the storm seemed to have passed but it was just the eye of the storm. No wind and no rain but the skies were heavy. We were able to make a cup of coffee as the camper van has a gas bottle and burner. The fridge freezer had been off for 5 hours. Fortunately we didn’t have much in the freezer. We used the time to take Bobby for a walk around the village at around 8.00am unaware of the looming other side of the hurricane and what it would bring in a few hours time. Obviously the internet was off but the 3G on my phone wasn’t working either so no communication and the battery was dying quickly.
At around 10.00am the rain started again along with the wind but both gradually increased in intensity so that it was actually worse than before. By now the wind had changed direction so that it was blowing from the North West to the side of the house. It was incessant. The wind was hurricane force which meant that water started coming through the seals on the side windows. Sponges out! Mopping up was continuous.
At about 6.00 pm on the Friday, Mark decided to check the patio at the back of the house and realised we had to get out there and start diverting water away from the garage. The boiler and washing machine are in the garage along with all the wood for winter. We diverted the water by creating channels in the gravel in the garden so that water could divert from the patio through the garden and out into the track beside the house. We still needed a broom and bucket to brush most of the water away. Of course it was still raining and windy and we got drenched but at least it wasn’t cold. At one point I said to Mark that we were fighting a losing battle. I was getting tired, but he said to continue and so pleased that we did. At about 8.00pm we had made enough progress so that once the storm had eased we could stop and get into the house. I looked back at the garden and didn’t recognise it at all. The pond had overflowed and most of the garden itself was under water but the patio area was almost clear of water and it certainly felt like the storm was ending.
No power though so no hot shower. We just had to get dried off as best we could and were so worn out we just climbed into bed. Our heads never hit the pillow!
Saturday morning came and it was calm outside. We still had water at this point even though houses in the main village had none which was a bit strange and we were later to find out we just had residual water in the pipes and our water went off too at 2.00 pm that day.
Clean up time.....
There was no damage to the house at all, but the garden had taken a hammering. Mark started to tidy up the garden, removing trenches etc while I was removing debris from around the house outside. The aspen tree nearby had left a trail of branches and some of our pots and plants had fallen off the wall. The oleanders in the plant pots on the patio looked like they’d had a few rounds with Mike Tyson.
I had to cut several leaves off the palm trees and the sweet pea bush was almost uprooted, lying on top of the red robin bushes. I’m hoping we can save it. The archway frame leading into the garden was almost vertical but the plants on it were OK so we just had to reposition it.
I had just planted a Bird of Paradise seed about a 10 days earlier and it had just developed leaves and was about 2 inches tall. Before the storm I had thought that putting it at the front of the house would be a good idea. That was a bad idea in hindsight but surprisingly it wasn’t damaged at all!
I also had a relatively new silk tree about 5 inches in height which has delicate leaves but that survived too. Amazing.
By 2.00pm on the Saturday, the water had gone off completely.
We had a wander around the village and I have to say you would never had known there had been a hurricane. It was practically bone dry, the ground had just soaked it all up. Very little standing water in the olive groves and none on the roads.
Late Saturday afternoon about 5.30 pm and Mark had just said ‘I don’t think we’ll have power on tonight’ when bang the power came on. Without power for 40 hours. The water eventually came back on somewhere between late Saturday night and 6.00am Sunday morning.
Of course during the storm we had no idea how other parts of the island were being affected. It wasn’t until the Saturday night after our phones had been charged that we started getting the Facebook posts from friends and Kefalonia Facebook pages that we realised we had been extremely lucky. Coastal resorts had been devastated.
The picturesque village of Agia Effimia only 15 mins drive from us was hit really hard. Boats had sunk and two large yachts had been blown against the harbour wall. Our friends had just moved into the first floor apartment right on the sea front and they had said the spray from the waves had reached up to their apartment and they were flooded. Not just water from the sea but the torrent of muddy water from behind as it flowed down the valley. Nightmare.
Sami, Fiskardo and Assos, all coastal resorts, had similarly been affected. Rubble, sand, and mud everywhere. Devastation. Properties had been damaged, trees uprooted and roads caved in. No-one was killed on Kefalonia, though there were deaths on mainland Greece. A State of Emergency was declared on the island.
Rainfall: 644mm daily accumulated rain
Wind speed: Maximum wind gust recorded - 194.4km/h.
It's official - The strongest ever recorded Medicane.
Sunday 20th September 2020 and the clean up operation was continuing all over the island to repair the infrastructure, power and communication and to restore water supplies. The Greek Army had arrived to help from the mainland via the ferries and the Municipality of Sami warned all unnecessary traffic to stay off the roads so that the clean up operation wouldn’t be hindered.
We took this opportunity to have a walk into the valley from our house. It was a beautiful blue sky day and warm. A stark contrast to previous days.
The river bed which is normally dry at this time of year was full of fresh running water from the mountains and there is a little area under a stone bridge where we had a swim. (Approx. 6ft deep)
No one around..... as usual. The place to ourselves.
A few weeks ago at the beginning of November, I was sitting at the computer when I heard a scratching noise coming from the inside of the wood burner. The weather has been lovely recently so fortunately we haven't had the wood burner on at night. I looked through the glass front and initially couldn't see anything so I got the torch out. I was expecting a bird but got a fright when I saw a bat! It looked tiny. We weren't sure what to do at first as we thought if we opened the door and it flew out, it would be covered in soot and we wouldn't be able to catch it, so we left it hoping it would find it's way back up the chimney.
The following morning we checked the wood burner and couldn't see or hear anything so we thought it must have gone. However in the evening I heard scratching again and turned round from the computer to see something drop out the bottom of the wood burner! How on earth it managed to squeeze its way out we don't know but Mark managed to pick it up and release it outside. It flew away apparently unharmed.
December is approaching fast so until my next post...
Stay safe peeps.
