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 thrives on tourism and we are working to find a system that will allow us to quickly bring our loyal holidaymakers to Cogne“, 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 plan to open a tractorable road to Valnontey soon and fix the aqueduct”, added the mayor. During the night between Saturday and Sunday, two air ambulance interventions rescued a family with a small child and three isolated people in the Urtier valley. Around 200 people, including residents and tourists, were evacuated by helicopter, with the operational base located in Aymavilles, the most downstream municipality.
Extensive damage: the solidarity of hoteliers
The damage extended not only to the regional road, interrupted in three places, but also to the Valnontey municipal road, where both the electricity grid and the aqueduct were out of order. Civil Protection and local authorities are engaged in a race against time to restore essential services and ensure the safety of residents and tourists. In response to the crisis, hoteliers in Aosta, through the Adava association, are gathering availability to offer rooms for free to displaced people, 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.
The other affected areas
From Piedmont to Valle D’Aosta, between landslides and floods, it was an emergency weekend due to bad weather. The flood that hit several areas of the two regions only ended yesterday. And now the damage counting has begun. There are flooded houses, uprooted roofs, entire isolated hamlets and dozens of cars damaged by hail. About thirty hikers remained stuck in the shelters at the foot of Monte Rosa. The governor of Piedmont Cirio is ready to request a state of emergency. Across the border, there were three deaths in France and two in Switzerland. In Piedmont, 374 interventions by firefighters were counted in just two days.
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