Larnaca's Fire Services had responded to over 130 calls by late last night from people whose premises were flooded by over four hours of torrential rain.

Roads, car parks and land plots were turned into small lakes, while both of Larnaca's Fire Service stations were inundated with calls from residents in the town's coastal area all the way up to the old airport.

According to the Fire Services last night, the services responded to 132 calls, of which 15 involved cars that had become trapped on flooded roads.Fire Services spokesman Leonidas Leonidou said firemen had responded to over a hundred of the calls. "We hope that by late tonight, we will be able to respond to the rest of them," he added.

But Leonidou confirmed the situation had started to calm down, as the calls had stopped.

Many areas were affected, including the Kiti Bishopric, the Skala estate near Makenzy Beach and Kamares. The cargo warehouses at the old airport were also flooded out.

Larnaca residents blasted the town's lack of readiness to deal with storms and heavy rainfalls, with many blaming the floods on the municipality's failure to clean and maintain the city drains.

One resident said road works in the town centre hadn't helped the situation. "Some road works have taken place and as a result the water has been flowing down. But the most important problem is that the drains are blocked as the correct maintenance isn't carried out to clean them," said one resident.

Another kiosk owner said most of his stock had been destroyed after his storage area was flooded.

The rainy weather is set to continue today and tomorrow with snow expected in the Troodos Mountains. Thursday is expected to be drier - though some showers will be expected in parts of the island.

Temperatures are expected to drop lower than the normal 17 degrees for this time of year on Friday, when more rain and grey weather is expected.

Meanwhile, the island's reservoirs gathered the least water for five years during the October-December period, it was announced yesterday.

According to the head of the Water Development Department, Sophocles Aletraris, around five million cubic metres of water flowed into the island's reservoirs last December, compared to the previous year's 23 million cubic metres.

Source: Cyprus-Mail