Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

STORMS

Rail disruption as northern Italy battered by severe storms

Extreme weather hit Milan and Brianza on Tuesday, blocking roads and rail services and causing parts of the area to temporarily lose power.

Published: 31 October 2023 17:55 CET
Milan was previously hit by severe storms in July of this year.
Milan was previously hit by severe storms in July of this year. Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP.

Roads were blocked and some public transport and rail services suspended after intense downpours flooded the city’s streets early on Tuesday morning, Italian media reported.

Videos shared on social media showed Milan’s Porta Garibaldi station completely submerged below ground.

“Forced to cross the train platforms without any safety checks because the underpass is in these conditions,” wrote one disgruntled passenger.

“Trenitalia and Trenord [train companies] wash their hands of the situation.”

Some of the stops on Milan’s M3 subway line were closed, while several roads in and around the Lombardy capital were closed off, causing traffic problems.

The Brenner motorway that connects Italy to Austria was blocked due to a landslide on the Austrian side of the border, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

Italy’s fire service said it carried out more than 50 operations in Milan, including rescuring a mother and her two children who had been trapped in their car by a fallen tree.

By Tuesday afternoon, the flooding had begun to subside, though there were still some disruptions to public transport and Trenord rail services, according to Il Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

SHOW COMMENTS