“Being mayor today and also being mayor on 19 June 1996 inevitably produces a whirlwind of sensations and reflections in me. Now almost thirty years later, the anniversary of the flood of 19 June 1996 reminds me of an unfortunate day of fear and paroxysm, and therefore keeps alive an underlying melancholy linked to the memory of the painful loss of so many of our citizens . From the point of view of everyone’s responsibility and role, that experience, as far as possible, must be a lesson for the future. We must all work hard to ensure that the awareness of the problems we all acquired together that day is transformed into cultural reflection and proactive energy. The memory of pain must therefore be accompanied by the memory of events, which provides a series of knowledge coming from the territory, of technical acquisitions and new attitudes and skills to better understand, respect and care for the territory”.
Mayor Lorenzo Alessandrini thus remembers the event of twenty-eight years ago which saw him in the front row managing the emergency in the Seravezzo area, implementing happy intuitions that allowed him to save numerous lives of those who were headed towards the Stazzemese area. Tomorrow he will be present at the planned celebrations, in particular at 1.45pm in Cardoso (the time when the event was at its most virulent) and at 7.55pm in Marzocchino when, in conjunction with the passage of the relay of memory, a wreath will be placed at the elementary school in memory of Valeria Guidi whose body was never found again.
Once again Alessandrini will wear the sash of mayor, as in 1996, but with much more knowledge and awareness, the result of his long experience in Rome as an official of the Civil Protection Department, where he was called to make a contribution to the national system precisely to following the competent management of that disaster.
“The testimonial contribution of all those who suffered the event, as well as that of those who intervened to help during the event, must not be diluted or watered down by the passing of time and by generational turnover – adds Alessandrini – because the experience lived in those hours left us many basic lessons for the prevention of new disasters and for the safety of our slopes and our hydrographic system: the role of the abandoned chestnut grove, the water management works on the main and secondary river branches, the coexistence with a very peculiar climate. We must treasure it.”
The mayor recalls, in fact, how Versilia records rainfall data among the highest in Europe, attributable to the particular orographic conformation with the mountains a few kilometers from the sea, as well as to the location close to the Gulf of Genoa with its frequent meteorological depressions which determine a distinctly thunderstorm rainfall regime.
“We all know that the public administration alone cannot exhaustively deal with this widespread and expensive commitment to risk mitigation – concludes Alessandrini – and that the difference between a dangerous territory and a more protected one comes precisely from being able to also count on the housing in the hills and on the care of private properties, particularly on the slopes and on the banks of the canals. All these elements must remind us that in Versilia it is never allowed to lower our guard, not even when the sun is shining. After all, on July 19th, while on the coast the tourists were calmly on the beach, in the immediate hinterland, a few kilometers away, there was an infinite drama”.
