Machines blocked. Horn. Flooded cellars. Passers-by take shelter as best they can under their balconies. Against the fury of nature, the umbrella is useless. It lasted an hour, no more. “But we’ve never seen a hailstorm like this before.” Those who live and work in the northern area still have their noses turned up in the air. «Hailstones? Manno. They looked like plates». Then the rain did the rest. And via Bologna, Corso Giulio Cesare, Corso Vercelli, Corso Novara, Corso Principe Oddone looked like glaciers melting at the North Pole. Panic breaks out around 5pm. Roads blocked, motorists stranded.
Extremely strong hailstorm in northern Turin, ice on the streets like snow
Hail like snow in Turin, submerged sidewalks: traders and street vendors working together to clear the shops
On Corso Giulio Cesare, the police and army prevent access to the bridge. Impossible to continue, the roundabout a little further on is completely flooded.
The hail subsides. The rain too. The traffic becomes impossible to manage. AND in Corso Vercelli the residents let off steam: «You don’t see a policeman who is one! Yet when fines are due, many arrive. And so many of them arrive.” The army is there to help and provide support. A pharmacist, wearing plastic shoes, goes out into the street. She calls together the neighbors who come for vegetables and those who run the minimarkets. The manholes need to be unblocked. «It will be 40 or 50 centimeters of hail», they say. While, all armed with brooms, they try to clean.
Storm in Turin, the streets become rivers
After the storm, solidarity. The elderly are unable to walk: they slip on the ice, they sink into the mud. Pushing a stroller? Desperate undertaking. And so whoever can helps to cross, accompanies home. «It looked like a river in flood. Stand in the middle of the street? Impossible. Such a mass of hail and water that it was frightening.”
Cloudburst over Turin: the water breaks through the protections and enters the houses
For traffic? There is little that can be done. From via Cottolengo to reach via Borgo Dora it takes more than an hour. Those in the car can’t help but be patient.
