“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.
PS In her naivety, the youngest cat asked where there are faucet taps in Paradise and God opened them all together. The oldest, who is 15, refused to open even a lid and comment on Oikonomou’s God-blame in any way.
A mouse that was running though the balcony repeatedly squeaking a word starting with <clo> and ending with <wns>
“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.”
If it was God’s doing, shouldn’t the repair money come out of the Church’s coffer?
that’s a valid point.
As always, your cats are wise and now even the passing mouse…. 🙂
wait for the birds coming for the plants seeds.
Zeus is here
And what has Kyrie Zeus to say in this matter??
It is a known environmental fact that there is an increase in flooding after a burned forest. When it rains, a tree can absorb many kilos of water, like a giant sponge. When a tree is dead, it can’t absorb anything. And then consider the fact that these forests were up on hills-gravity.
The government knows this. After the fires in the summer they said they would include landslide prevention in their environmental plan for the area. But I guess it was all talk, what politicians like to do! They also forget easily.
all correct unless the water doesn’t run downhill but uphill (lol)