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Search continues for missing two after deadly storms in central Italy

Rescuers continued the search on Monday for a woman and boy still missing after flash floods hit Italy's central Marche region, leaving at least 11 dead.

Published: 19 September 2022 13:43 CEST

Search continues for missing two after deadly storms in central Italy

A flooded courtyard in Pianello di Ostra, Ancona province, on Friday September 16th following storms and flash floods. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

“Search operations for the last two missing people continue,” confirmed firefighters in Ancona on Monday afternoon, more than three days after flash floods devastated the area.

Local media reports said the two were an eight-year-old boy and a 56-year-old woman.

They were named by Italian press as Mattia, the boy who was swept away from his mother by fast-flowing waters, and Brunella Chiù, whose 17-year-old daughter was among the confirmed victims of the disaster.

Flash flooding in the Ancona area was triggered by storms late on Thursday night, with more than 400 millimetres (16 inches) of rain falling in some places in just a few hours.

IN PHOTOS: Devastation after deadly flash floods hit central Italy

Across the province, which is in the central eastern Marche region, streets were turned into rivers, cars swept away, furniture washed out of homes and thick mud left everywhere.

People clean a flooded street in Pianello di Ostra, Ancona. Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

As Marche residents mourned the victims and assessed the damage, there was rising anger directed at political leaders ahead of elections on September 25th.

READ ALSO: Italy records ‘five times’ more extreme weather events in ten years

While Prime Minister Mario Draghi acknowledged on Friday that the flooding was the result of climate change, major parties have said little on the topic during campaigning ahead of the vote.

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'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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