AFP UK

“You’ve got too many farmers pumping all around,” complained Raul Atilano. This octogenarian resident of Corcoran, the self-proclaimed farming capital of California, was struggling to make sense of the strangest of phenomena: his already suffering town is sinking, ever so gradually, into the ground.

A constant stream of trucks carrying tomatoes, alfalfa or cotton outside this town of 20,000 shows just how inextricably Corcoran’s fate is tied to the intensive farming practiced here.

To irrigate its vast fields and help feed America, farm operators began in the last century to pump water from underground sources, so much so that the ground has begun to sink — imagine a series of giant straws sucking up groundwater faster than rain can replenish it, as hydrologist Anne Senter explained it to AFP.

– Like a 2-story house –

Strangely, signs of this subsidence are nearly invisible to the human eye. There are no cracks in the walls of the typical American shops in the town’s center, nor crevices opening up in the streets or fields: to measure subsidence, Californian authorities had to turn to NASA, which used satellites to analyze the geological change.

And yet, over the past 100 years, Corcoran has sunken “the equivalent of a two-story house,” Jeanine Jones, a manager with the California Department of Water Resources, told AFP.

The phenomenon “can be a threat to infrastructure, groundwater wells, levees, aqueducts,” she said. 

The one recognizable sign of this dangerous change is a levee on the edge of the city, in an area where wisps of cotton blow in the air. In 2017, the authorities launched a major project to raise the levee, for fear that the city, which sits in a basin, could be flooded … whenever the rains finally return.  

This year, however, the problem has been not floods but an alarming drought aggravated by climate change.

It has transformed this food-basket of America into a vast field of brown dust, forcing the authorities to impose water-use restrictions on farmers.

So Corcoran now finds itself in the midst of a vicious circle: with their water supplies limited, farm operators are forced to pump more underground water, which in turn speeds the sinking of the town.

– Fear of losing jobs – 

Few locals have spoken out against the problem — not surprising, since most of them work for the same big agribusinesses pumping up groundwater. 

“They are afraid that if they speak against them, they might lose their job,” said Atilano. He spent years working for one of the country’s biggest cotton producers, J.G. Boswell, whose name is seen on thousands of cloth bags stuffed with cotton that are seen stacked around town.  

“I don’t care,” he adds with a smile. “I’ve been retired for 22 years.”

As big farm operations have increasingly become mechanized and industrialized, requiring less and less local labor, the town’s inhabitants themselves have been sinking — into a debilitating economic and psychological slump.

One-third of the majority Hispanic population here now lives in poverty. The three movie theaters that once brought life to the town have all closed their doors.

“A lot of people are moving out,” said local resident Raul Gomez, who is 77.

On this summer afternoon, under a crushing heat wave, some people have stopped to chat under an enormous wall painting.

It depicts a clear blue lake surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks — for now, a distant dream.

Once famed for its exceptional wildlife, Libya’s Farwa island risks becoming just another victim of lawlessness in the war-ravaged North African nation, activists struggling to save it warn.

An uninhabited 13-kilometre-long (eight mile) sandbar cut off at high tide in far western Libya, Farwa appears picture-postcard idyllic, with scattered date palms on white sandy beaches and ringed by the sparkling Mediterranean Sea.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has said Farwa is potentially the “most important coastal and marine site in western Libya, in terms of its high marine and coastal biodiversity”.

But it faces a long list of threats, said Fawzi Dhane from local environmental group Bado, identifying illegal fishing and pollution as key worries.

Climate change is also exacerbating the situation, making Farwa more vulnerable to the pressures already heaped on its fragile environment.

For decades there were few visitors, apart from occasional school trips to the island.

Libya’s former dictator Moamer Kadhafi dreamt of building a luxury seaside resort there, complete with “floating” villas and a golf course.

But Kadhafi was ousted and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising, and Libya has struggled to contain violence and political turmoil ever since.

– Explosive fishing –

In a country awash with weapons, some find lobbing grenades into the water an easy way to fish — a destructive method killing everything in the blast zone.

“The fishermen do not respect anything,” Dhane said, blaming boats from the port of Zuwara, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) to the east.

“They fish at all times, in an unregulated way — and they practise fishing with explosives.”

Endangered loggerhead turtles are also being harmed, according to the activist.

“The turtles are sometimes caught in fishing nets, when they are not killed by fishermen who fear their bites,” said Dhane.

The Bado association works to protect turtle clutches laid on the beach from predators and from people who come to dig up the eggs.

The island, which lies close to the border with Tunisia, is made up of sand dunes stretching over 4.7 square kilometres (1.81 square miles). Its lagoon and salt marshes are also home to flamingos.

One of the only buildings is a crumbling lighthouse built in the 1920s under Italian colonial rule.

Farwa is among the most important areas in Libya for many migratory birds, according to Tarek Jdeidi from the University of Tripoli. It is a key staging post for those travelling over Africa to rest before flying across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Today, Farwa has become a popular spot for Libyan holidaymakers, with dozens visiting every weekend.

“They leave their rubbish behind,” sighed Dhane.

– Chemical pollution –

Another threat comes from the nearby Abu Kammash petrochemical factory, which has for years “leaked heavy metals” into the soil and sea, according to Dhane.

While the complex has been abandoned, the impact of the dangerous pollution “is still felt”, he added.

Shawky Muammar, an archaeologist who has conducted digs on the island, discovering Roman-era tools and tombs, calls the pollution from the dilapidated plant an “environmental disaster”.

He also expressed worry that rising sea levels due to climate change could swamp the low-lying island.

“It risks being swallowed up if measures are not taken to try to contain the sea,” he said.

In recent years, oil-rich Libya was split between two rival administrations backed by foreign powers and myriad militias.

After a peace deal last year, an interim unity government was agreed in March ahead of elections set for December.

But it has not changed anything for the island.

In the meantime, environmental groups have taken on the task of protecting Farwa, while hoping for a return to stability and the rule of law.

Dhane said he has “organised conferences and awareness campaigns in schools” to try and explain the threats the island faces.

And in partnership with international organisations like the World Wildlife Fund, “we are trying to educate fishermen”, he added.

Out of sight, out of mind: Problems with decades-old pipes and sewers across American cities and towns are largely hidden and tend to be neglected for years before exploding into public crisis.

Last month, the Clarksburg Water Board in West Virginia announced that children from three homes were diagnosed with high lead levels, prompting the municipal authority to immediately replace pipes and launch a testing program throughout the system.

“I don’t think they know the magnitude of the problem,” said James Griffin of the West Virginia Black Heritage Festival, who organized a community meeting earlier this week with water officials.

“There’s just a whole lot of not knowing.”

The latest local water crisis surfaced as the Senate moves closer to passing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan package to address neglected maintenance on traditional infrastructure, as well as spending on clean energy and broadband internet.

Environmentalists have welcomed the bill, but say funding for water projects falls far short given the scale of the problem.

They are holding out hope that further funding will be provided in the $3.5 trillion budget package backed by President Joe Biden, which could be enacted later this year, despite Republican opposition.

“It’s a start,” Tracy Brown, regional director for water protection at Save the Sound, said of the Senate bill.

– An ‘overwhelmed’ system –

Brown’s group, which focuses on the Long Island Sound and other waterways in the states of New York and Connecticut, has been pressing local officials to address wastewater problems that regularly force local beaches to close after heavy rains.

Her group documented 164 raw sewage spills in Westchester County in suburban New York between 2010 and 2019, blaming shrinking federal support compared with the 1970s, when much of the network was built.

“The bursts are caused by breakdowns in aging and poorly maintained pipes and pumps that crack or fail,” according to a November 2020 report.

The worst incidents are in the majority-Black city of Mount Vernon, New York, less than 20 miles from Manhattan, where residents sometimes need to collect their own waste and empty it in a manhole. 

One woman told a local news show that her grandchildren call her home “the poop house.”

Catherine Coleman Flowers, a member of a White House environmental justice council, visited some of the homes last month and likened the decrepit network has created “third-world sanitation conditions.”

The city, which has been sued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency over the sewage problems, estimated a fix could cost more than $100 million.

“It’s underground,” Brown said “People want to invest in things they can see, like roads and bridges and police officers.”

– Old homes –

In West Virginia, the Clarksburg Water Board has tested 228 homes and found six instances of elevated lead levels, general manager Jason Myers said, adding that the board plans to test all 8,500 taps in its network.

The board replaced lead service lines — which run from the street to the houses — and provided bottled water to more than 500 homes with pipes suspected of containing lead.

The National Guard has been enlisted to help distribute water as well.

“We may be the first in West Virginia with this problem, but we won’t be the last,” said Myers, who is enlisting the state’s congressional delegation to win funding for a project that could cost more than $6 million.

There also could be lead in the pipes inside the houses in Clarksburg, most of which were built decades ago before experts knew that exposure to lead harmed brain and organ development in children.

“I suspect it may be fairly widespread,” said Michael McCawley, a professor at the West Virginia University School of Public Health, who said the contamination likely stems from the interaction between old pipes and water that is “a little too acidic.”

“Infrastructure is a an ongoing cost,” he said. “It is essential to have a national program, because if you leave it to the local government they will not have the tax base to maintain the infrastructure.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that addressing the lead problem nationwide will cost $45 billion. But the Senate bill includes only $15 billion for this purpose.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but we need a lot more,” said Becky Hammer, NRDC’s deputy director on federal water policy.

US authorities said Saturday they were searching for eight people missing as a huge wildfire raged in northern California, leaving two towns in little more than cinders.

The Dixie Fire, the largest active wildfire in the United States, recently became the third-largest in California history.

As of Saturday it had blackened 446,723 acres (180,782 hectares) in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813 and surpassing the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. Dixie is now 21 percent contained, the CalFire website reported.

While the fire continued to grow, officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday.

“We expect the same fire behavior as yesterday, which was fairly moderate,” Jake Cagle, a firefighter sections chief, said in a briefing Saturday.

Earlier, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, while also burning through the small town of Canyondam.

The Plumas County sheriff’s office said it had received the descriptions of eight people considered missing in Greenville and was searching for them.

– Residents refuse to leave –

As authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Law enforcement officers are asking any residents who stay for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

The Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel, CalFire said.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

A preliminary investigation has suggested the fire was started when a tree fell on a power cable owned by regional utility Pacific Gas & Company (PG&E), a private operator that was earlier blamed for the huge Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 86 people.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

US authorities said Saturday they were searching for eight people missing as a huge wildfire raged in northern California, leaving two towns in little more than cinders.

The Dixie Fire, the largest active wildfire in the United States, recently became the third-largest in California history.

As of Saturday it had blackened 446,723 acres (180,782 hectares) in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813 and surpassing the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon. Dixie is now 21 percent contained, the CalFire website reported.

While the fire continued to grow, officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday.

“We expect the same fire behavior as yesterday, which was fairly moderate,” Jake Cagle, a firefighter sections chief, said in a briefing Saturday.

Earlier, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, while also burning through the small town of Canyondam.

The Plumas County sheriff’s office said it had received the descriptions of eight people considered missing in Greenville and was searching for them.

– Residents refuse to leave –

As authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Law enforcement officers are asking any residents who stay for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

The Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel, CalFire said.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

A preliminary investigation has suggested the fire was started when a tree fell on a power cable owned by regional utility Pacific Gas & Company (PG&E), a private operator that was earlier blamed for the huge Camp Fire in 2018, which killed 86 people.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

Forest fires this year have consumed more than 147,000 hectares (360,000 acres) in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz department, the regional government reported Saturday.

As in neighboring Brazil, the fires have been aggravated by widespread deforestation aimed at expanding farming or pasture land.

And they come in a year when climate change has become an increasingly urgent issue with mammoth wildfires in the Western US as well as in Greece and Turkey.

“At a departmental level, 147,254 hectares have been affected by forest fires,” Yovenka Rosado, coordinator of Santa Cruz’s Forest Fire Program, announced.

The most severely affected areas border Brazil.

Rosado said a Super Puma helicopter was being used to douse the larger fire sites with water, and emergency personnel and equipment were being deployed to key spots.

Rosado said 831 fires had been reported just in the first days of August, for a total this year of 15,555.

Each year Bolivia confronts forest-fire outbreaks started by settlers in remote areas or by agribusinesses trying to expand their production.

Bolivian NGO the Friends of Nature Foundation estimates that forest fires last year destroyed more than 2.3 million hectares of forests and grassland. 

In 2019 huge fires in Bolivia’s Amazon destroyed about 6.4 million hectares, the group said.

A vast wildfire in northern California, already the third-largest in the state’s history, continued to grow overnight but officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

The Dixie Fire has now ravaged 446,723 acres in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813. That area is larger than Los Angeles — and has surpassed the sweep of the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon.

But cooler temperatures and calmer winds moved into the area overnight in a boon to weary firefighters, the state agency Calfire said. Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday. 

The fire is now 21 percent contained.

Earlier in the week, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, though no deaths were reported. It has also burned through the small town of Canyondam, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times said that as authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge.

When that happens, law enforcement officers are asking the residents for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

Ironically, the Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached what the CalFire website calls the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

Hundreds of firefighters fought fires that have devoured record numbers of woodlands in Greece on Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but heavy rains brought respite to hard-hit Turkey.

More than 1,450 Greek firefighters backed by at least 15 aircraft were battling the blazes, with reinforcements arriving from abroad, the fire service said.

In Pefkofyto, in the north of Athens, pensioner Tasos Tsilivakos struggled to contain his tears.

“This is a horrible disaster,” he told AFP.

“I’m really afraid that maybe only our great-grand children will have the chance to walk again in these areas.”

One 62-year-old man from nearby Agios Stefanos told Alpha TV how after being evacuated he watched his house burning on television. “My child is still crying from the shock,” he said.

France and Britain said they were rushing to help Greece.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that he had spoken with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis about the crisis.

“Solidarity as Europeans always,” Macron tweeted, saying France had deployed 80 firefighters and rescue workers as well as three Canadair firefighting planes.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted Saturday that Britain is sending “a team of experienced firefighters to support Greek firefighters currently battling the huge blazes”.

Egypt is also expected to send two helicopters and Spain one Canadair plane. 

– ‘Nightmarish summer’ –

With strong winds and temperatures of up to 38 degrees C (100 F) forecast in some regions on Saturday, the blazes in Greece are expected to continue for some time. And this year’s fires have already been far more destructive than in previous years.

In the last 10 days, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average number of hectares burnt over the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares.

“When this nightmarish summer ends we will reverse the damage as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis pledged on Saturday.

Greece and Turkey have been fighting devastating fires for more than a week as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Officials and experts have linked such intense weather events to climate change.

So far, they have killed two people in Greece and eight in Turkey, with dozens more hospitalised there over 10 days.

A UN draft report seen by AFP labelled the Mediterranean region a “climate change hotspot”, warning that heatwaves, droughts and fires would become more fierce in the future, supercharged by rising temperatures.

– Rains help Turkey –

But the weather gave Turkey some relief Saturday.

Officials in the  coastal city of Antalya said the blazes were under control in the southwestern province after rainfall.

And heavy rain was expected till afternoon in areas including Manavgat, one of the most affected by the fires.

The situation remained serious however around the tourist hotspot of Mugla, where at least three neighbourhoods have been ordered to evacuate.

There have been over 200 fires in 47 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, Agriculture  Minister Bekir Pakdemirli tweeted Saturday. Thirteen of those fires in five provinces were still burning.

– Fears of more high winds –

Civil Protection deputy minister, Nikos Hardalias said Saturday that 55 blazes were raging across Greece.

They were burning on Evia, the country’s second largest island, which lies east of the capital; in the Peloponnese region in the southwest; and in Fthiotida in Central Greece.

The fire front on Evia alone ran a length of 30 kilometres (18 miles), said Fanis Spanos, regional governor of Central Greece. 

On the north of the island, another 23 were evacuated Saturday morning after 1,300 were plucked off the beaches by ferry boats the night before. Navy warships were on high alert off the coast in case more evacuations are required. 

Meanwhile officials reopened part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country.

Central Greece governor Spanos told the Athens News Agency (ANA) that more than 300 families whose homes had been burned down were being sheltered in hotels.

And the situation remained dire in Mani, in the Peloponnese, where 5,000 people were evacuated Friday. 

Eleni Drakoulakou, mayor of East Mani, told ERT TV on Saturday that half the municipality had been destroyed by the flames. She blamed a lack of water-bombing air support during the critical first hours of the wildfire. 

ANA  reported that two people had been charged for arson: a woman was arrested in Athens Friday carrying two lighters, petrol and flammable material, just after a fire broke out there.

And a 43-year-old man was arrested in Krioneri, northern Attica.

A vast wildfire in northern California, already the third-largest in the state’s history, continued to grow overnight but officials said Saturday that cooler, calmer weather was giving firefighters a much-needed break.

The Dixie Fire has now ravaged 446,723 acres in four counties, up from the previous day’s 434,813. That area is larger than Los Angeles — and has surpassed the sweep of the vast Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon.

But cooler temperatures and calmer winds moved into the area overnight in a boon to weary firefighters, the state agency Calfire said. Those conditions are expected to continue into Sunday. 

The fire is now 21 percent contained.

Earlier in the week, the Dixie Fire left the Gold Rush town of Greenville charred and in ruins, though no deaths were reported. It has also burned through the small town of Canyondam, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Times said that as authorities urge thousands of locals to evacuate, they have been met at times by armed residents refusing to budge.

When that happens, law enforcement officers are asking the residents for the names of next-of-kin — to be notified if the fire claims their lives.

Ironically, the Dixie Fire’s movement northeastward has been slowed in part because it has reached what the CalFire website calls the “scar” of an earlier blaze, the 2007 Moonlight Fire, reducing available fuel.

More than 5,000 personnel are now battling the Dixie blaze, which is sending enormous clouds of smoke into the air that are easily visible from space.

By late July, the number of acres burned in California was up more than 250 percent from 2020 — itself the worst year of wildfires in the state’s modern history.

A long-term drought that scientists say is driven by climate change has left much of the western United States parched — and vulnerable to explosive and highly destructive fires.

Hundreds of firefighters fought fires that have devoured record numbers of woodlands in Greece Saturday and left hundreds of families homeless, but heavy rains brought some respite to hard-hit Turkey.

More than 1,450 Greek firefighters backed by at least 15 aircraft were battling the wildfires and flare-ups, with reinforcements arriving from other countries, the fire service said.

“We are sending a team of experienced firefighters to support Greek firefighters currently battling the huge blazes,” UK Home Secretary Priti Patel tweeted Saturday.

Egypt is also expected to send two helicopters and Spain one Canadair firefighting plane. 

With strong winds and temperatures of up to 38 degrees C (100 F) forecast in some regions on Saturday, the blazes in Greece are expected to continue for some time yet. And this year’s fires have already been far more destructive than in previous years.

In the last 10 days, 56,655 hectares (140,000 acres) have been burnt in Greece, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The average number of hectares burnt over the same period between 2008 and 2020 was 1,700 hectares.

“When this nightmarish summer ends we will reverse the damage as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged on Saturday.

In Pefkofyto, in the north of Athens, pensioner Tasos Tsilivakos struggled to contain his tears.

“This is a horrible disaster,” he told AFP.

“I’m really afraid that maybe only our great-grand children will have the chance to walk again in these areas.”

One 62-year-old man from nearby Agios Stefanos told Alpha TV how after being evacuated he had had to watch his house burning on television. “My child is still crying from the shock,” he said.

– Rains help Turkey –

Greece and Turkey have been fighting devastating fires for more than a week as the region suffers its worst heatwave in decades. Officials and experts have linked such intense weather events to climate change.

So far, they have killed two people in Greece and eight in Turkey, with dozens more hospitalised there during 10 days of the blazes.

A UN draft report seen by AFP labelled the Mediterranean region a “climate change hotspot”, warning that heatwaves, droughts and fires would become more fierce in the future, supercharged by rising temperatures.

But the weather gave Turkey some relief Saturday.

Officials in the Turkish coastal city of Antalya said the blazes were under control in the southwestern province after rainfall there.

And heavy rainfall was expected to continue until the afternoon in areas including Manavgat, one of the most affected by the fires.

The situation remained serious however around the tourist hotspot of Mugla, where at least three neighbourhoods have been ordered to evacuate.

There have been over 200 fires in 47 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli tweeted early on Saturday. Thirteen of those fires in five provinces are still burning.

– Fears of more high winds –

Greek Civil Protection deputy minister, Nikos Hardalias said Saturday that 55 blazes were raging across Greece.

They were burning on Evia, the country’s second largest island, which lies east of the capital; in the Peloponnese region in the southwest; and in Fthiotida in Central Greece.

The fire front on Evia alone ran across 30 kilometres (18 miles) long, said Fanis Spanos, regional governor of Central Greece. 

On the north of the island, another 23 were evacuated Saturday morning after 1,300 were plucked off the beaches by ferry boats the night before. Navy warships were on high alert off the coast in case more evacuations required. 

In the Attica peninsula the situation was “more stable” as there were no strong wind in the area. 

Meanwhile officials reopened part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country.

Central Greece regional governor Fanis Spanos told the Athens News Agency (ANA) that more than 300 families whose homes had been burned down were being sheltered in hotels.

And the situation remained dire in Mani, in the Peloponnese, where 5,000 people were evacuated Friday. 

Eleni Drakoulakou, the mayor of East Mani, told ERT TV on Saturday that half the municipality had been destroyed by the flames. She blamed a lack of water-dropping air support during the critical first hours of the wildfire. 

In Ilia, in western Peloponnese, more villages were evacuated. 

ANA meanwhile reported that two people had been charged for arson: a woman was arrested in Athens Friday carrying two lighters, petrol and flammable material, just after a fire broke out there.

Also Friday, a 43-year-old man was arrested in Krioneri, northern Attica.