Babis Evangelinos steers his motorboat across what was once his thriving almond orchard in central Greece’s Thessaly plain. Now, the trees are half-submerged in floodwater, their bare branches clawing at the sky like skeletons. 🌊 ‘This was my livelihood,’ he says, voice cracking. ‘Five months later, my land is still a lake.’
Last year’s historic floods turned Greece’s agricultural heartland into an apocalyptic waterscape. Over 40,000 acres of cotton fields, orchards, and grazing lands vanished underwater — along with tractors, irrigation systems, and years of hard work. A flood-prevention pumping station? Ironically, it’s now an island in the new Lake Karla 2.0. 🚣♂️
Pelicans and herons — newcomers to this once-dry region — glide above the wreckage. ‘Nature’s sending us a bill for climate mistakes,’ says local agronomist Maria Kostopoulou. With extreme weather battering Europe’s farms from Italy’s drought-stricken olive groves to Germany’s hail-battered vineyards, the Thessaly disaster feels less like bad luck and more like a flashing red alert. ⚠️
As Evangelinos docks his boat where his farmhouse once stood, one question hangs heavier than the storm clouds: How long until the next climate-driven disaster drowns another breadbasket?
