Chopper looks for damage as Tinos faces second day without power

A Civil Protection Authority helicopter has been dispatched to the Cycladic island of Tinos in the Aegean to locate parts of the power network that may have been damaged by snow and strong winds, leaving the entire island in darkness for the second day in a row on Thursday.

Power grid operator DEDDHE on Wednesday had sent a crew on a truck to find whether the damage was to the main cable connecting Tinos to nearby Andros, from which it gets its power, or whether it was to a part of the local network. The truck, however, was unable to navigate the island's rugged terrain and came off the road in a snow drift.

DEDDHE hopes that the helicopter will have better luck spotting the damage so that crews can restore supply as soon as possible, amid concerns that the power outage may endanger people's lives.

Greece's islands, and especially in the Cyclades, rarely see snow and are relatively ill-equipped for dealing with extreme winter weather.