A woman from Merseyside has described what it was like being in the middle of a horrific storm which led to the death of a man on the Greek island of Rhodes. Mandy Kormi travelled to the island on Monday, October 12 with her husband Kian when their flight was diverted to Kos due to a storm.
It soon cleared and they then travelled on to Rhodes before arriving at their villa in the village of Stegna. But when the couple woke up on Wednesday, they were greeted with torrential rain and a power cut.
'It's just nuts, it was so scary'
Mandy, who is from Stockbridge Village but now lives in Colwyn Bay, said: "It's just nuts, it was so scary. We only arrived a couple of days ago, we are in our own villa on the edge of a cliff and weather has been crazy.
"The rain was really bad in the morning [on Wednesday] and we saw waterspouts that looked like tornadoes and they were huge. The rain was pouring down but then there was a break and we decided to go out.
"We wanted to get out because we had no power and thought it had passed but when we drove down to the village you could see the damage from the storm.
"The road was badly damaged from a boulder which had fallen because of the weather. We turned round and went back up to the villa. That's when the next lot of rain came.
"When it passed we went for a walk down to the village and we saw the aftermath. There were cars floating in the water. We had only been on that same road an hour earlier and we could see the river coming down the road.
"There was no power, no water, no wifi. The villa was rattling from the wind and rain."
Footage shows waterspout and cars washed up
In dramatic footage captured by 54-year-old Mandy, it shows the waterspout in the sea, with Mandy explaining how she "felt like we were in the eye of the storm".
She added: "Our villa is on the edge of the cliff, I didn't know whether to stay inside or be outside so I was sat there with my trainees on. I was worried the villa was going to go off the edge of the cliff."
Footage taken by Mandy also shows cars washed up on the beach after being dragged away by the water.
Man dies as car swept onto beach
During the flash floods, a 62-year-old man died as his car was swept onto the beach by torrential floodwaters on the Greek island.
The island was hit by exceptionally heavy rainfall, with Greek public broadcaster ERT reporting that more than 200mm of rain fell in six and a half hours. The national fire service said emergency crews received 113 calls on Rhodes by 4pm local time, carrying out 64 water-pumping operations and evacuating 13 people to safety.
The man who died worked at a local hotel. He had attempted to retrieve his car after it was swept away by torrents of water, according to residents who spoke to Greek TV channel MEGA.
His body was later found among reeds and debris on the beach, according to ERT. The Greek coastguard confirmed that a man had been found unconscious in the waters off Stegna and said four cars had been swept away by the floodwaters, the Mirror reported on Wednesday.
Speaking to the ECHO on Thursday morning, Mandy explained how a large clean-up operation was underway with cars still stranded on the beach following the devastating storm.
