‘We drove into the belly of the beast’

Eleni Panayiotou

Last Wednesday afternoon, I finished my gym class and checked my phone only to find several messages and missed calls enquiring after the well-being of my family. It was 6 o’clock. I called back.

My mother answered the phone and, in a panic, told me that she was told to evacuate and was driving to Agios Amvrosios. With a friend we drove from Nicosia to Limassol, where we came face to face with the fury of nature so often seen in post-apocalyptic Hollywood films.