- Sudden stormwater flooded Viannos, Selakano, and Ierapetra after months of parched fields.
- Rain gauges measured up to 75 mm in just a few hours.
- The rare Neraídogoula spring opened, sending water through the Sarakina Gorge.
- Farmers are grateful, but still complaining: no dams, no retention works, water lost to the sea.
Southeastern Crete woke up on September 29 to the rarest of gifts: rain. Forecasts had promised nothing more than a drizzle for Chania and Rethymno, but a stray low-pressure system split from the central front and dumped water over Mesara, Viannos, and Ierapetra. For an area nursing the wounds of three years of drought, it was nothing less than a godsend.
By mid-morning, storm clouds had burst, filling cisterns, soaking fields, and even reawakening the Neraídogoula spring in Selakano, which fed torrents down through Sarakina Gorge. Locals called it a “gift from God,” though one delivered by the Garbis wind rather than divine hand.
The Numbers Behind the Flood
According to gauges from the National Observatory, Cretaweather, and weather enthusiasts with backyard rain meters, the skies delivered:
- 75.2 mm in Ano Viannos
- 60.8 mm in Selakano
- 50 mm in Malles
- 49.8 mm in Martha
- 47 mm in Chondro
- 34.2 mm in Tymbaki
- 30 mm in Kastrí
- 25 mm in Kalamafka
- 23.4 mm in Embaro
- 20 mm in Nea Anatoli
- 17.6 mm in Orino
- 15 mm in Dafni Sitia
- 13 mm in Ierapetra plain
- 12 mm in Kato Horio
For vegetable growers, the cisterns are filled. For olive farmers, the groves got a free watering, worth at least 20 days without irrigation.
The Spring That Wakes with the Wind
Local shepherd and Christos village president Michalis Kritsotakis explained:
“When the Garbis blows, the Neraídogoula opens. It does not happen only after heavy rain but because the currents block the aquifer from draining into the sea at Myrtos. The water backs up and escapes through the spring. This morning, Selakano had more than 60 mm of rain, and the gorge ran heavy.”
It was the second time in 2025 the spring had opened—the first was back in March. If southerly winds persist, the flow can last up to three days before fading.
A Blessing with a Bitter Aftertaste
For the president of the Ierapetra irrigation association, Giorgos Karalakis, the downpour was a mixed blessing:
“The rain gave hope, but the water carried too much silt to feed into the Bramiana reservoir immediately. If it clears, we will divert it. Meanwhile, the cisterns are full, and olive growers are spared irrigation for weeks.”
But others were less forgiving. Beekeepers, stockmen, and farmers once again raised the issue of dams—those mythical earthworks promised for decades but never built.
Kostas Krassas, president of the Lassithi Beekeepers’ Association, was blunt:
“So what if we had heavy rain today? All of it will end up in the sea. No preflood dams, no retention basins, no simple earthworks to hold the muddy water until it clears. Even the army’s bulldozers could have done it, if anyone cared. Instead, the water from Neraídogoula and the whole storm will be lost to Myrtos.”
For now, the rain is a reprieve: the earth is moist, the cisterns are full, and the Sarakina Gorge sings with water. But the structural problem remains. Without small dams, preflood barriers, and long-promised infrastructure, every “gift from God” runs away to the sea.
Βιάννος και Ιεράπετρα «ανάσαναν» από τις βροχές – Γέμισαν οι ομβριοδεξαμενές, άνοιξε η Νεραϊδόγουλα
