President Luca Zaia does not mince words and talk about authentic disaster to describe the bad weather in Veneto. He admits the difficulties and extensive damage after the violent downpours, in some cases even with hail, which hit the North East. The situation is constantly evolving. There have been flooding, landslides, fallen trees. There are landslides in Monselice where schools will be closed tomorrow. On the coast, Jesolo literally went under water. The most affected provinces are those of Vicenza, Padua and Venicebut the storms did not even spare some areas of the province of Treviso. Two bridges collapsed in Malo (Vicenza) and three embankments collapsed in Isola Vicentina, Castelnuovo and between Zimella and Cologna Veneta (Verona). Special guards i Livenza, Meduna and Tagliamento rivers. The red alert will last until the early afternoon of tomorrow, Friday 17 May.
Unfortunately, the images are those that are often seen, when prolonged and abundant rain is capable of keeping entire cities and territories in check.
Like in Senigallia, like in Brescia, Prato, Ischia, just to name a few. And climate change is multiplying the frequency of these violent precipitations that we would once have defined as anomalous.
In Veneto today all six rolling basins had to open for the first time to drain rainwater. A state of emergency has been decreed, as always in these cases, and work is underway to renovate the banks of rivers and streams that have been completely breached. The authorities’ advice is to move only if necessary and if you do so, to do so away from the river banks which at the moment represent very dangerous and unsafe places.
It’s a movie you’ve already seen. Once again the streets have become rivers, with the earth simply regurgitating water. Houses are flooded and people are forced to leave their homes, the elderly and children are in danger. It happened this time too, in Veneto. While central and southern Italy already enjoyed summer temperatures, storms broke out in the North East resulting in flooding and floods.
«We didn’t expect a flood like this in mid-May“, said Zaia who framed the phenomenon as “exceptional for its seasonality and its characteristics: intense downpours in a very short time, which do not allow the surface water to be cleared away quickly”. «We are in objective difficulty. We are faced with an unusual, unplanned event”, he said. For Zaia among the causes of the disaster there is also action on the banks of nutrias and badgers: «The breakthrough in Castelnuovo and Isola Vicentina is proof of this. Without wishing harm to these animals, we must safeguard the lives of citizens. We cannot allow this to continue and surely a remedy must be found.
Vicenza, violent and rare rain: a phenomenon that happens every 300 years
Among the most affected areas is Vicenza where they fell 230 mm of rain in six hours in Velo d’Astico: a phenomenon that occurs on average once every 300 years. «It could even happen again next year, although the probability is low. Climate change will unfortunately make this an increasingly frequent event. Even the 70 mm that fell in 30 minutes in other areas of Veneto is something that happens on average every 200 years”, says Professor Marco Marani of the Icea department of the University of Padua and director of the Center for studies on the impacts of climate change based in Rovigo.
In Schio the water rose from under the ground, flooding houses, basements and garages. Vicenza railway station deserted due to the precautionary interruption of the lines towards Padua, Treviso and Schio due to the level of the Bacchiglione, Retrone and Astico rivers. The Brenta river, which crosses Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza), also rose during the night but remained within its banks.
In Padua, over one hundred interventions were carried out by the firefighters and in Monselice, where a landslide occurred, it was decided to close the schools. Flooding was also recorded in Abano Terme. The Bacchiglione river has exceeded 6 meters in Vicenza and the entire network that should help the water flow is in difficulty.
In Jesolo there was a powerful storm. The underground and basement rooms went under water. In Mira there was a collapse of an embankment.
Even in Friuli there is damage and inconvenience: in the province of Udine there are around twenty houses flooded and in the worst cases the water reached 40 centimetres.
In Pordenone the Maniago stage of the Paracycling World Cup was suspended and postponed. The competition, which also assigns the last places for the Paris Paralympics at the end of August, will take place until Sunday. Tomorrow all the time trials will be concentrated (with an extension of the original timetable, to make up for today’s competitions), while the road trials are scheduled for the weekend. Over 700 athletes from 40 different federations are participating in the Italian stage of the World Cup.
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