Angelo Conti
The November 6, 1994 it was Sunday but on the first floor of via Marenco, in the Chronicle of La Stampa, we were all already there at 7 in the morning. Piedmont was under attack by most violent flood of its history. The telephones did not stop ringing, the switchboard had collapsed, the television broadcast the first dramatic images and the dead began to be counted, by the dozens. The service manager Marco Marello decided our roles: “Mascarino goes to Alba, Conti goes to Alessandria, those from Miravalle take care of Asti, the Alto Tanaro is Cuneo’s business, we move the correspondents to the Vercelli area, we manage the province of Turin from the headquarters, the others work on a detailed map damage and deaths throughout the region. And try not to forget anything or anyone”. In the courtyard we waited for the cars with the drivers busy understanding which roads to take and which bridges had fallen and which had not, without forgetting to place spare petrol cans in the trunks. The photographers were ready, with high leggings to be able to move in the mud, and thick tarpaulins to protect their Nikons from the rain that was still falling. The internal radio, which connected all La Stampa media with the editorial office, reeled off worrying information on traffic conditions. We left.
Ezio Mascarino, our top black expert who then lent himself to the catastrophe for months, arrived in Mussotto d’Alba just before midday and found his road blocked by the Tanaro. He did not lose heart, in front of the Fornace Casetta he managed to find a ride on a fire engine, and arrived at the heart of the disaster. “Even Ferrero is underwater,” he said as soon as his Microtac managed to pick up a signal. And, from that moment, the narration of what was happening began. Country after country, hamlet after hamlet, bridge after bridge, the journalists in the area began to compile the map of the devastation: While on the ground floor of via Marenco and in via Roma 80, in front of the donation offices, the queue got longer. In a few hours hundreds and hundreds of millions were paid to Specchio dei Tempi (in the end it will be 25 billion!). The same phrase from everyone: “We know that you will do well and above all that you will do it quickly”. Less than 20 hours later, at dawn on November 7, journalists began moving with bags full of banknotes. They brought concrete, extraordinarily immediate help, always accompanied by a hug. And the people, shocked up until that point, began to smile.
Even in Alba where, immediately after the delivery of aid to hundreds of families among the most affected, people began to think about a more important intervention: that of the new bridge over the Cherasca torrent in the Santa Margherita region was soon identified (replacing the seriously damaged viaduct damaged by the flood) with related road connections and bank defenses. For this work Specchio dei Tempi poured, a month after the flood, a billion lire to the Municipality of Alba.
The bridge was inaugurated on 16 December 1997. “Un sign of hope and trust in tomorrow – said the mayor – cwithout the help of the La Stampa Foundation, we would not have been able to achieve it, without risking seeing it unfinished for a long time, as often happens when one has to rely only on public funding, which is struggling to arrive”. That was, at that time, the most important reconstruction work completed in Alba after the flood. The viaduct, which still connects the village of Moretta and the hill today, was 27 meters long and 13 meters wide, crossing the stream with a single span, so as to facilitate the flow of water in the event of a flood.
The link between Specchio dei Tempi and the city of Alba it has remained strong even in more recent years. Just two months ago the foundation organized in-depth moments on the Constitution for school children (with the participation of the magistrate Giancarlo Caselli) and just last year it had gathered hundreds of middle school students to teach them the rules of riding a bicycle (“A bike school” project). Also in recent years, defibrillators have been delivered to schools and retirement homes in the area, emergency interventions have been carried out in favor of families and farmers affected by misfortunes, natural disasters and accidents, while the Thirteenth Friendship celebrations also reach the province of Cuneo a hundred elderly people in serious difficulty. Specchio’s hand is always tensetowards Alba and towards the whole of Piedmont.
