“Nobody can mess up with God,” government spokesman said in all seriousness at the briefing on Monday regarding the floods in northern Evia that was devastated by the forest fires in last August.
“The problem was not that the burned roads were blocked” he said adding “unfortunately nobody can mess up with God, we cannot control natural phenomena.”
Oikonomou’s blame-game is a turn to an even higher spiritual level by the conservative government narrative that claimed in summer “the climate change was to blame for forest fires” and not the delayed intervention of the humans to extunguish the blazes with aerial and other means.
Worth noting, though, that Oikonomou neither urged residents affected by the floods to rush to churches and light a candle nor did he elaborate on whether God has some specific problems with Evia, particularly with the residents the North.
Kidding aside, the government spokesman said also that it is not the first time the sea resort of Agia Anna is flooded.
It should be recalled that a government minister, Stelios Petsas, claimed on Sunday that there was no connection between the burned forests of summer and the floods two months later.
Anyway, Oikonomou reassured that the government is taking care of the structural problems in their entirety, especially there where the situation has worsened and stressed “we are fighting against time.”
Τwo months after the devastating forest fires on the islands that burned down over 50,000 hectares of forest (note the lack of anti-wildfires measures) and recent reports on mainstream media that “anti-flooding work is proceeding in fast pace,” it turns out that the studies for the anti-flooding measures are scheduled to be concluded by the end of October, as state broadcaster ERT reported on Monday.
Speaking to Skai TV also on Monday, Deputy Minister in charge of state aid and restoration of natural disasters, Christos Triantopoulos,said that anti-flooding work in northern Evia will start next week. He added that the anti-corrosion measures are progressing.
He said that urgent funding of 20 million euros will be allocated to the regional government and the municipalities of the areas affected by the floods in Evia. The money will be used to deal with the consequences of the floods and to continue the work, including the cleaning of the streams.
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