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FLOODS

One dead after severe storm and flooding hits southern Italy

A man was killed after torrential rain caused flash flooding in the southern Italian province of Avellino on Thursday, local media reported.

Published: 25 May 2023 18:30 CEST
One dead after severe storm and flooding hits southern Italy
Storms caused further localised flooding in Italy on Thursday after floods caused by torrential rain devastated the Emilia Romagna region last week. (File photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP)

The 45-year-old man was reportedly hit and killed by his own car, which was parked on a slope, as he tried to salvage it from flood waters in a rural area in the municipality of Contrada.

The man was thought to have been working in a chestnut orchard when flash floods hit, causing major damage to homes and farmland in the area, reported news agency Ansa.

“It is a tragedy in an area that is not new to these phenomena and which is characterised by its vulnerability,” the mayor of Contrada, Pasquale De Santis, told Ansa.

“There was only twenty minutes of rain preceded by a hailstorm, but of exceptional strength,” he said.

The area has been repeatedly hit by severe flooding during storms and families in the nearby village of Celzi had to be rescued using rubber dinghies in the last major floods in November 2023.

Flooding hit the southern province at the same time as European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen was visiting Emilia Romagna in the north-east of Italy on Thursday after last week’s severe flooding killed 14 people there.
 
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said at a press conference on Thursday that Italy would apply for financial support from an EU fund following the disaster in Emilia Romagna once the damage to the area has been fully assessed.
 
Scientists say extreme weather events like the heatwaves, severe storms, flooding and droughts which now regularly ravage Italy are becoming more frequent and more intense due to human-caused climate change.

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STORMS

Weather warnings issued to 15 Italian regions as storms continue

Fifteen of Italy's regions were issued with weather warnings on Monday as storms continue to batter the country. There were reports of avalanches and landslides in the north.

Published: 4 March 2024 12:15 CET
Weather warnings issued to 15 Italian regions as storms continue

Parts of the northern regions of Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna are under an ‘orange’ alert for flood risk, Italy’s Civil Protection Department said in a bulletin released on Sunday evening.

Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily and parts of Veneto, Lombardy, Tuscany and Sardinia are under a lower level ‘yellow’ warning.

The warnings relate to “strong to gale force winds” and “possible storm surges along exposed coasts”, the department said.

The Coldiretti farmer’s association said on Monday that the River Po’s level was estimated to have risen 2 metres over the course of the 24 hours in the Turin area.

Two landslides occurred overnight on provincial roads in the popular tourist destination of Cinque Terre in Liguria, while numerous small landslides were reported on the roads surrounding the regional capital of Genoa.

Snow has been recorded below 1,000 metres on the island of Sardinia and on the volcano Vesuvius outside Naples.

An avalanche in the French-bordering northwestern region of Valle d’Aosta overnight has isolated the town of Rhêmes-Notre-Dame, cutting off 80 residents plus additional tourists, according to Italian news agency Ansa.

“We have no reports of damage to people or things,” said Mayor Nella Therisod. “Now the inspection of the technicians is underway to evaluate when we can reopen without endangering anyone.”

A further 6,000 people in the region have reportedly been temporarily isolated due to a snowfall blocking access to the upper Gressoney Valley and the authorities’ decision to cut off road access to Cogne and Valgrisenche as a preventative measure.

The mayor of Gressoney-La-Trinité, where around 2,500-3,000 people are stranded, most of them tourists, said vehicles were working to clear snow from a blocked tunnel and he hoped that the road would be reopened by the afternoon.

The winds and rain that have struck Italy in recent days are expected to continue well into this week, according to weather reports.

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