Torrential rains on March 28-29 have severely damaged the road networks on the islands of Karpathos and Kassos, local authorities reported on Monday. The volume of water that fell on the two islands was unprecedented, the prefect of Karpathos and Kassos Yiannis Minatsis said to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

The South Aegean Region authority has declared a state of emergency on both islands and has mobilised a strong response to restore the damage on the islands.

“We have already managed to tackle the landslides problem that occurred in many parts of the network but at two points on the road network of Karpathos the road has split into two and intervention on a major scale is required to fix it,” said Minatsis.

“The extreme weather conditions that prevailed in the last days brought a number of problems, mostly to the road network,” noted Karpathos Mayor Ilias Lambros, underlining that there were also problems to the water supply which have been repaired. “We hope the restoration of the damages will be completed as soon as possible. The island must be ready for the tourist season. We are in contact with the region and the responsible ministries and I believe that the restoration works will start very soon,” Lambrou said.