Disaster in Cogne, the picturesque Alpine town in the Aosta Valley which is experiencing hours of great difficulty due to a devastating flood that hit the region, causing extensive damage to infrastructure and isolating the town. Despite the critical situation, the mayor of Cogne, Franco Allera, expressed confidence in the ability to recover the tourist season, which is crucial for the local economy. «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.“, Allera told Ansa. His words came the day after the flood that severely damaged the regional road 47, the main artery connecting the rest of the valley.
Helicopter evacuations and infrastructure restoration
Since the early hours of this morning, evacuation operations for tourists stranded in Cogne have resumed, carried out by helicopter. «There are still 600 to be taken down to the valley.
We also expect to open a tractor-friendly road to Valnontey and fix the aqueduct soon,” the mayor added. During the night between Saturday and Sunday, two helicopter rescue operations saved a family with a small child and three people isolated in the Urtier valley. About 200 people, including residents and tourists, were evacuated by helicopter, with the operational base located in Aymavilles, the municipality furthest downstream.
Extensive damage: solidarity from hoteliers
The damage is extensive not only to the regional road, interrupted in three places, but also to the municipal road of Valnontey, where both the electricity grid and the aqueduct are out of order. The Civil Protection and local authorities are engaged in a race against time to restore essential services and guarantee the safety of residents and tourists. In response to the crisis, the hoteliers of Aosta, through the Adava association, are collecting availability to offer free rooms to the displaced, demonstrating a strong sense of solidarity and community.
The intervention of the national authorities
Fabrizio Curcio, head of the National Civil Protection Department, stressed the importance of the preventive measures adopted, which avoided even more dramatic situations: “The first point is always the protection of people: also with preventive evacuations. The preventive closure of the road avoided dramatic situations”. Curcio thanked all those who worked promptly to ensure safety, highlighting the positive results of such preventive actions. Local and national authorities are working tirelessly to address the emergency and restore normality, while the local community shows solidarity and resilience in this time of crisis.
Other areas affected
From Piedmont to Valle D’Aosta, between landslides and floods, it was a weekend of emergency due to bad weather. The flooding that hit several areas of the two regions ended only yesterday. And now the counting of the damage has begun. There are flooded houses, uprooted roofs, entire isolated villages and dozens of cars damaged by hail. About thirty hikers were stuck in shelters at the foot of Monte Rosa. The governor of Piedmont Cirio is ready to ask for a state of emergency. Across the border, there were three deaths in France and two in Switzerland. In Piedmont, 374 firefighter interventions were counted in just two days.
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