Venice, 16 May 2024 – Un collapsed bridge And some people saved to Vicenza (video) where it was declared the red alert due to hydrogeological and hydraulic criticality in a large part of the regional territory, valid until 2pm tomorrow, Friday 17 May.
Hail and damage also in Emilia Romagna
Bad weather today in Veneto, a state of emergency declared: damage in Vicenza
A homeless He was rescued from the water that was submerging him in a completely flooded area in the center of Vicenza by the firefighters. Rescuers reached the area, a porch below street level, with a dinghy. The man was taken to safety and reached a new shelter on his own. A woman who had remained isolated with her child in the Caperse area, also in Vicenza, was evacuated with a rafting dinghy and taken to a safe area. Furthermore, the so-called “Chicken Bridge” in Malo collapsed: the structure was demolished by the flood of the Orolo torrent.
Bridge collapsed due to bad weather in Malo (Vicenza): the structure was demolished by the flood of the Orolo torrent (Visual Team)
Rain until 229 millimeters in six hours, with peaks of 70 in half an hour, and 148 in the plains. “Impressive showers” with the effect dthe “significant damagethree embankment breaches” (Castelnuovo, Isola Vicentina and Valverla), a couple of bridges “gone” to Malo, “landslides and various messes…” In short, “a moment of objective difficulty” which has lasted in Veneto since yesterday and was illustrated this morning by President Luca Zaia.
Bad weather today in Veneto, a state of emergency declared: damage in Vicenza
Were performed hundreds of interventions throughout the Veneto due to widespread flooding and damage caused by bad weather which, especially during the night, hit the plain with intense rain and showers. It’s very difficult there traffic circulation, with several sections of road and underpasses flooded. The firefighters have received hundreds of requests for help, especially for flooding, landslides and unsafe trees, and since yesterday evening they have already intervened in at least 250 critical situations.
”This is technically a flood that in mid-May, honestly, we really didn’t expect it,” said the president of the region Luca Zaia during the conference updating the situation in Veneto at the headquarters of the regional civil protection in Marghera. “We don’t remember phenomena like this in this period – he added. We have open all basins Laminating. Last night we didn’t think that the situation would evolve in this way. So we officially have the crisis unit was established and declared it state of emergency”.
“We have open all basins during the night. It’s the first time we’ve done it”, thus “a disaster was avoided”, continued Zaia. ”Not all basins depend on the Region, only the largest ones are under our responsibility” recalled thecivil protection councilor Gianpaolo Bottacin, underlining that ”the minor network of Lower Padua is almost at its limit” and part of it is managed by reclamation consortia. The rolling basins currently are at 50% of their capacity, the majority (Trissino, Montebello, Orolo, Caldogno and Trissino) are located in the province of Vicenza, apart from Colombaretta (Verona). The latest one inaugurated twenty days ago, the Diaz, is also open.
”The bulletins of alert? They are predictions that as such they can change over the course of even a few hours, they are not absolute certainties”. This is how the President of the Region Luca Zaia responds controversy over the notices issued yesterday by the regional civil protection of Veneto which initially signaled a yellow state of attention which then turned into orange only in the late evening, a circumstance which for many would have led to an underestimation of the seriousness of the phenomenon. For critics, the orange state of alert should have been issued immediately in the early afternoon yesterday and not waited hours later.
“The next 24 hoursand still require the utmost attention and the maximum alert. The disturbance should then move eastwards and therefore towards Treviso and Belluno”. Zaia added, taking stock of the wave of bad weather that has hit the Veneto region in the last few hours. “It was a exceptional phenomenon due to the seasonality and the characteristics of intense downpours in a very short time which do not even allow the surface water to drain. It’s like we’re throwing buckets of water in the sink Even if this works perfectly, it cannot drain such large quantities of water”
In the province of Verona carried out since midnight yesterday around 60 interventions due to water damage, the area of San Bonifacio and Soave was particularly affected where the divers from Vicenza to help motorists stuck in an underpass. In Padua, 60 interventions were carried out, with the municipalities of Montagnana and Casale di Scodosia particularly affected. A landslide invaded the road close to the walls of the Rocca di Monselice. In Vicenza, 71 interventions were carried out including water damage and landslides, with 35 still waiting. Landslides and landslides in the Alto Vicentino area near Schio. In Rovigo, 26 interventions were carried out, in Treviso 15. In Venice there were 52 but there are still 12 waiting.
