After the severe storms of the past few days, parts of Italy have once again been hit by heavy rain and storms. The popular holiday region of Tuscany was particularly affected. More than 16,000 households were without power and around 1,200 people in the area were evacuated as a precaution, said the region’s president, Eugenio Giani. At least seven people have died as a result of the storms that have hit the area since Thursday evening.
The severe storms particularly affected the provinces of Prato and Pistoia. The Bisenzio River and several smaller streams overflowed their banks and flooded entire towns. The water remains high there. In particular, the places through which the Bisenzio river flows continue to fight against the water masses. “The water came from all sides, from here, from there, you couldn’t stop it. We lost everything,” said a man on Italian television.
Meanwhile, clean-up work is underway in communities where the water has already receded after the heavy rains and floods on Friday night. “Our Tuscany may be wounded, but we are already rebuilding. Forza!” wrote Giani in a Facebook post. Mud and devastation characterize the picture. The residents shovel the mud from the streets and clean up the damaged houses and apartments. Soaked furniture and destroyed objects are piled up on the sides of the road.
The damage in the region is immense. Giani spoke on Sunday of around half a billion euros worth of damage caused by the storms. A state of emergency was declared in the region on Friday. The government in Rome allocated Tuscany an initial batch of five million euros for initial aid.
More rain than there has been in decades
The storms on Sunday night caused great concern for meteorologists and civil defense experts. The head of civil protection, Fabrizio Curcio, warned of the new rain on Saturday and called for caution. The soil was already “saturated” from the rain of the past few days and could hardly absorb any further precipitation. Experts from the National Research Council (CNR) said that there had not been so much rain in such a short period of time in the region for decades. According to Curcio, there is still an increased risk of new floods and landslides.
Italy has already been hit by several severe storms this year with deaths. Emilia-Romagna struggled with extreme flooding and landslides in May. 15 people were killed. Criticism of the civil defense’s emergency plans was already voiced back then. The responsible minister, Nello Musumeci, announced a national hydraulic engineering plan to prepare for more frequent floods and landslides. There is also currently a demand for better protection against such weather extremes.
Other European countries also affected
In France, where the situation previously remained tense, clean-up work continued over the weekend. As of Sunday morning, 137,000 households were still without power. French media reported that an employee of the electricity supplier Enedis died during the work at the weekend. From Saturday evening, a new storm also hit western France, with some wind gusts reaching speeds of up to 150 km/h. Another 160,000 households were without power.
Meanwhile, at least four small landslides were reported in Slovenia due to storms and heavy rain. In Radovljica, northern Slovenia, on the Sava River, a house was also threatened by the earth, but civil protection officers were able to secure the area, the STA agency reported. On Sunday, water levels in the rivers in the east of the country were expected to rise, but they are expected to fall again from Monday.
