Storm ‘Daniel’ caused a trail of devastation to the industrial-manufacturing businesses of the Thessalian plain, leaving behind dozens of flooded factories, mainly in the regional unit of Larissa. There are also hundreds of businesses that cannot operate, not because of the flooding, but mainly because of the inability to access the industrial areas where they are based and/or because of the destruction of the water supply network and also of unsuitable water, where it exists.
The president of the Association of Thessalian Industries, Giorgos Roupakias, estimated that the reopening of the flooded businesses will be feasible well after a period of four to six months, underlining at the same time the enormous destruction of the plant and animal capital of the region, which provide the raw materials for a very large number of Thessalian processing industries, whether agricultural products, or cheese factories, etc.
According to reports, the factories of Del Monte and Intercomm Foods in the regional unit of Larissa have suffered a massive blow due to flooding, while at least ten industries located along the old Thessaloniki-Larissa highway have also been flooded, another ten in the area of Koulouri, where, among others, one of the two Exalco factories of the Biocarpet Group has been put out of business, as well as several units in the area of Sykouri. In other places, there are problems of access and water supply and the approximately 60 businesses established in the industrial zone are not operating, while the road communication between Larissa-Yiannouli region and the neighboring regional unit of Kozani is also very difficult.
The two Thessalian Associations of Industries are recording the damages and problems, in order to find the most suitable support measures for the return to normality as quickly as possible. A prospect, however, which apparently is not immediate, nor easily achievable, as the industries may be generally insured, but the recent unprecedented bad weather has caused very big problems in the road networks, in the water supply networks and, as mentioned above, a very large part of the raw materials that provide local businesses has been destroyed.
By the middle of next week, the problems will have been fully restored in the 2nd Industrial Area of Volos and the Industrial Area of Lamia and to a large extent also in the Industrial Area of Karditsa, the Managing Director of ETVA BIPE, Athanasios Psathas, stated to “Naftemporiki”.
