Europe’s climate refugees: The Greek communities wiped off the map
[...]
They are not going back. Two years after Cyclone Daniel turned Greece's farm belt into an inland sea, Metamorfosi is one of the dozens of villages that remain half-abandoned.
The families who fled say they are among Europe's first climate refugees: displaced by extreme weather, priced out of nearby rentals and stuck in bureaucratic limbo as the government studies whether, and where, to rebuild entire communities.
[...]
Cyclone Daniel dumped more than a year's worth of rain on central Greece in just hours. According to the EU's Copernicus monitoring service, some 750 square kilometers, roughly the area of New York City, of the Thessalian plain were inundated, much of it farmland. The plain accounts for 25 percent of Greece's agricultural production, with much of the country's wheat, barley, chickpeas, lentils and pistachios grown there.
"There was absolutely no planning whatsoever," said Dimitris Kouretas, Thessaly's regional governor. He indicated three maps in his office in the city of Larissa that showed where the government has promised to implement flood prevention projects, including modifications to riverbeds and dams in the mountains, none of which have been completed.
[...]
Even as villagers remain scattered across the region, some are debating whether it's better to rebuild or to relocate. Before the flood, the village of Vlochos had about 400 residents. Today, fewer than a third have returned.
[...]