Catastrophic flood drives village of Metamorfosi to seek relocation

When floodwaters gushed through the farming village of Metamorfosi in September, residents fled. Now they want to relocate their entire community, terrified it cannot survive another bout of extreme weather driven by climate change.

Metamorfosi nearly disappeared beneath the water as Storm Daniel, which wrought havoc across the Mediterranean, struck the central Thessaly region on September 4-7, turning it into an inland sea. Sixteen people were killed, including a man and his mother in Metamorfosi who drowned in their home.

Standing in his uninhabitable, mud-stained house two months after the disaster, 80-year-old farmer Vassilis Tsatsarelis - who saw Metamorfosi flood completely in 1953, 1994 and 2023 - is among many who want authorities to relocate his village to a safer spot.

"I want to leave," he said. "Even though I was born here and grew up here, I want...