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Tuscany’s death toll from Storm Ciaran rises to eight

The body of an elderly man was found in Tuscany on Tuesday, an official said, the eighth victim in the Italian region from a storm that battered Western Europe last week.

Published: 7 November 2023 17:41 CET

Flooding from Storm Ciaran in Prato, where an eighth victim was found on Tuesday.

Flooding from Storm Ciaran in Prato, where an eighth victim was found on Tuesday. Photo by Handout / Vigili del Fuoco / AFP.

Antonio Tumolo, 84, was “found in the early afternoon in Prato”, a city northwest of Florence, a spokesman for the region told AFP, confirming the death toll had reached eight.

The body of Tumolo, whose family had reported him missing, was found in a plant nursery some 15 kilometres from where he lived, Italian media reports said.

His crushed car had already been found, apparently swept up by a torrent of water.

More than a dozen people died across Western Europe after Storm Ciaran brought heavy downpours and record winds late last week.

IN PHOTOS: Storm Ciarán causes deadly flooding in Italy

In Tuscany, the storm swelled the Arno River, which runs through Florence, and transformed streets in many of the region’s villages into rivers, washing away cars in a rush of water and mud.

The storm was estimated to have caused some half a billion euros in damage in Tuscany, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

Several regions remained on alert on Tuesday with further storms expected

Veneto, the region Venice and Verona belong to, was under a moderate-level amber alert, while Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Abruzzo, Lazio, Molise, Campania and Umbria were on a lower-level yellow alert.

Extreme weather events have highlighted Italy’s exposure to hydrogeological risk including flooding and landslides.

“The fragility of Italy in the face of climate change will be a problem,” European Commissioner for Economy and former Italian premier Paolo Gentiloni said on Sunday.

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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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