A fresh yellow weather warning for rain and storms, in effect from 1am on Monday until 1am on Tuesday, was issued by the met office as Cyprus continues to feel the force of Storm Byron.
The met office said that a “combination of rain and isolated thunderstorms will affect the island”, and that hailstones are “likely”, while rain is expected to fall at intensities ranging between 35 and 55 millimetres per hour at the height of the storms.
The storms began in earnest on Friday night, with heavy rainfall and strong winds hitting swathes of the island throughout the weekend.
Polis Chrysochous was among the worst-affected areas, with the road linking the town to nearby Latchi closed for part of Sunday due to flooding, and the town’s mayor describing the situation as “unprecedented”.
He added that “several” landslides have occurred in the region, and that teams from the municipality have been mobilised to deal with the fallout.
In addition, he said, “several buildings and basements” in the town have been flooded.
On Sunday, met office senior officer Panayiotis Georgiou had said rain will continue to fall in Cyprus until Thursday, with the eye of Storm Byron is currently located west of the island and moving slowly eastwards.
Meanwhile, the Limassol municipality announced on Sunday morning that it had cancelled all Christmas-related events for a second successive day.
Earlier, tornadoes were reported in both the Paphos and Kyrenia districts on Friday night, with uprooted trees falling on properties near the Vrasida folk art museum in the Paphos district village of Tala and the village’s mukhtar Ioannis Konnikos saying electricity cables nearby had caught fire after being struck by a fallen tree.
He said that the electricity authority was immediately notified and that power was restored to the affected areas after a two-hour power cut.
In Kyrenia, meanwhile, workers at the Teknecik power station reported “significant damage” to the power station’s entrance and an administrative building as a result of a tornado.
Turkish Cypriot electricity workers’ trade union El-Sen said its workers were “working tirelessly and diligently to repair the damage and restore normal operations as quickly as possible”.
