“We are confident that we can save the tourist season. Cogne is a place that lives on tourism and we are working to find a system that will allow us to bring our loyal holidaymakers to Cogne in a short time”. This was stated to ANSA by the mayor of Cogne Franco Allera the day after the flood that caused serious damage to infrastructure, in particular to the regional road 47. “Since this morning – he added – the evacuation of tourists by helicopter has resumed, there are still 600 to be taken down to the valley. We also expect to soon open a tractor-trailer road to Valnontey and to fix the aqueduct”.
Curcio, it’s still too early to estimate how long it will take to connect Cogne
“It is still too early” to predict a timetable for restoring the road connection between Cogne and the valley floor, after the damage caused by the flooding of the Grand Eyvia torrent. This is what Fabrizio Curcio, head of the National Civil Protection Department, told reporters at the end of the meeting in Saint-Christophe (Aosta) to take stock of the damage caused by the bad weather together with the President of the Region, Renzo Testolin, and the technicians of the regional Civil Protection.
“The event is underway, the waterways – explained Curcio – are still very high. Even to understand the type of technical intervention to be carried out we need to understand the type of damage, how far the water reached it, what it was the most eroded part. In some cases we saw and were told of a change in part of the watercourse. So there are analyzes that require technical time to be more precise.”
“The priorities – said Curcio – are the people to bring down, the roads, the essential services, that is, a part of the aqueduct, still some electrical parts that need to be fixed, and then there are all the procedures for the state of emergency because this then allows the territory to operate with greater speed”.
The continued isolation of Cogne would weigh on the tourist economy of the town at the foot of the Gran Paradiso. “Like all communities – added the head of Civil Protection – they want to restart and restart quickly. These are communities that live off tourism and this area, particularly in the coming months, is in great demand, so there is a need to do things quickly. Not only do the operators want to work but the tourists want to come, so I think this is an element to take into account.”
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