A British couple on holiday in Greece were left without food and forced to brush their teeth and shower in brown water for two days after a tropical storm flooded their hotel.
Tom, who asked to keep his last name private, and his boyfriend Grant were spending 10 days on the Greek Island of Skiathos to celebrate Grant’s birthday when the ‘medicane’ (Mediterranean hurricane) hit, bringing with it flash floods and torrential rain.
The couple, both from Southampton, arrived at Beltsios Hotel in Troulos to a cloudless sky and 27 degree heat on Sunday September 23, but by Tuesday the temperature had plummeted.
British couple Grant and Tom (right), from Southampton, were spending 10 days in Greece for Grant’s birthday when two inches of dirty brown water flooded the couple’s bedroom and bathroom, which Tom said smelled like sewage
The pool at the Beltsios Hotel in Troulos on the Greek Island of Skiathos which has been left unusable by dirty floodwater
On Saturday the island was caught up in the medicane, dubbed ‘Zorbas’ by meteorologists, which battered the Sporades archipelago with gale-force winds of around 60mph.
The hotel quickly flooded, leaving guests without food or clean water.
‘Our room was flooded with two inches of dirty brown water,’ Tom explained. ‘It smelled like sewer water.
‘It was dangerously slippery and well as unhygienic.’
The hotel bar was closed for the foreseeable future, and guests were told there was no food for them
When they opened the door of their room (pictured right) the road was flooded with brown water, which seeped under the door (left)
Troulos was one of the worst hit areas, with the extreme conditions preventing sea-traffic in and out of the ports and delaying flights
‘Our clothes and all our bedding are full of water. I’m worried that our luggage will be over the 15kg weight limit as all of our clothes are soaking wet.
‘When we went to the restaurant and asked for food the staff said “no English” and “no food”.
‘The water coming out of the tap was also brown. I tried to brush my teeth but it tasted disgusting.’
The couple fear that they will be charged by the airline for the extra weight of their soaking wet luggage when they leave the island
Troulos was one of the worst hit areas, with the extreme conditions preventing sea-traffic in and out of the ports and delaying flights.
The guest staying next door to them was in a wheelchair and finding the conditions extremely difficult, Tom said.
The couple had to carry her chair down a flight of stairs and through floodwater.
‘The road outside the hotel turned into a river, which we would have had to walk through to get food,’ Tom said.
Tom described how he and Grant helped a neighbouring guest by carrying her wheelchair through the ‘river’ of floodwater. The hotel entrance looked to be damaged by bad weather conditions. The pool, bar and restaurant were all closed at the weekend
Soaking bedclothes and towels used buy Tom and Grant to try and stem the flow of dirty water seeping in through the door
‘This morning we couldn’t take it anymore and walked to a local petrol station for a packet of crisps.’
‘The pool is full of brown water so we can’t use that.
‘The hotel restaurant and bar have also been shut down for the rest of our holiday.
‘There has been no mention of getting us transferred to another hotel and we haven’t even had the option of being taken somewhere else to use their facilities.’
The 10-day holiday to Skiathos, in the Greek Sporades archipelago, turned into a nightmare when the island was hit with torrential rain and gale-force winds of around 60mph, causing flooding at the Beltsios Hotel (pictured)
The couple booked the holiday through Thomas Cook, and reached out to them on Twitter and through the direct helpline.
‘When they responded on Twitter they thought we were due to fly back on Monday, but it is actually Wednesday. They are clueless,’ Tom said.
‘I called Thomas Cook yesterday and they said they said they would call me back. They haven’t and we’ve been given no advice.
‘We heard absolutely nothing.’
A Thomas Cook spokesperson said: ‘The safety of our customers is always our first priority.
‘We made sure our customers were prepared for the bad weather before the cyclone hit, and advised everyone to stock up, especially those staying in self-catering accommodation.
‘Our resort team has been able to access the Beltsios Studios today and confirmed that everyone is safe, and that power and water are now being restored as the flooding subsides.’