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Interview by Tiziano Campigotto
The technicians of the Green and Road service of the Municipality of Udine have been busy since this morning checking the damage in the city after last night’s storm and carrying out the necessary cleaning, restoration and safety work in the affected areas. Among technicians and officials, there are sixteen people currently involved in the bad weather emergency, in addition to the eight already involved during the night.
As already mentioned last night, the most damaged areas of the city are those to the north, as well as the city ring. Dozens of trees fell, both in green areas and along the roads, unfortunately also damaging parked vehicles.
Among the various areas where falls occurred, even in private areas, are Via Monte Ortigara, via Codroipo, via Diaz, viale Vat, viale Trieste, viale Ledra, Piazza Patriarcato, via Tarcento, inside the civil hospital . Some pine trees in the Brun Park in Chiavris also crashed to the ground, tearing down the fence of the adjacent nursery school, and some in the Campo Dal Dan in Paderno. Trees also fell in the Ricasoli Garden, in the Parco della Rimembranza and along the Castle slope, which was closed.
Flooding occurred inside the Palamostre and in the changing rooms of the weightlifting gym in the basement of the Benedetti Palasport, in the Pascoli Elementary School, as well as in the underpass of Via Selvuzzis. There were also some sewer failures, in particular in Via Veneto in Cussignacco and in Piazzale Oberdan.
During the night and in the morning there were dozens of interventions by the Udine teams to clear and cut plants in the tree-lined avenues, cordon off the subsidences, clear out flooded rooms, repair various potholes, free manholes and drains. Seven volunteers from the Civil Protection and Local Police are at work, together with the great work of the Fire Brigade.
Mayor Alberto Felice De Toni: Yesterday’s violent storm caused a lot of damage to our city. Luckily, there were no injuries and that’s the most important thing. Throughout the night, local police, civil protection, firefighters and law enforcement teams worked tirelessly to manage flooding, remove fallen trees and secure the city’s roads and streets. The damage count is not yet complete, but our immediate priority is to reopen the roads and ensure their safety. I would like to thank everyone who is still working hard. My sympathy goes to those who have suffered damage to their homes, gardens or cars. It is clear that climate change is confronting us with violent atmospheric events that Udine is not used to, forcing us to rethink some structural issues of the city. For several months we have already been working to adapt our “green” heritage to the changed climatic conditions, the work is structural and long-term, a multi-year plan will be necessary to adapt to these new atmospheric events.
Andrea Zini: “Thanks to the consequences of climate change, violent meteorological events like last night’s are becoming more and more frequent, with an ever greater effort on the part of Civil Protection volunteers and rescue forces to deal with emergencies. Even last night the commitment was notable. The Civil Protection volunteers, whom I would like to thank for the timely intervention, in coordination with the Local Police of Udine and with the Fire Brigade teams, moved immediately during the night to ensure that there were no injured people and subsequently they worked, in concert with the Municipality’s green and traffic technicians, to free the most important blocked traffic arteries. The priority was immediately to re-establish vehicular traffic safely. For this reason, the areas subject to the most significant collapses were cleared already in the morning: the first interventions dealt with Viale Trieste, which was cleared already in the morning, while Viale Vat, where 3 trees fell, was reopened to traffic in the first afternoon. Especially in Viale Vat, the interventions were complex because the trees rested on the embankment of the canal, and their hasty removal would have further damaged the land, as well as carrying debris and mud along the river. Even as regards the flooding, the situation was under control already in the early hours of the morning thanks to the interventions to free the drainage grates last night”.
