Italy
Five dead after violent storms in Tuscany
A flooded street with numerous cars underwater in Lamporecchio. photo
© -/Vigili del Fuoco/dpa
While the clean-up work after the storm “Ciaran” is underway in France and England, a serious storm is raging in Italy. At least five people die.
Huge masses of water rush through entire city districts, cars swim through the streets and fields resemble lake landscapes. After the storm “Ciaran” has raged across large parts of Western Europe in the past few days, Italy will be hit by severe weather on Friday night Storms with heavy rain and flooding hit. At least five people died in the Tuscany region, which is popular with holidaymakers. Meanwhile, cleanup work is underway in France and England.
Extremely large amounts of rain fell in Tuscany last night. The municipalities of Campi Bisenzio, Prato and Quarrata in the province of Prato were particularly affected. Experts from the National Research Council (CNR) said that there had not been so much rain in such a short period of time in the holiday region for decades. 190 millimeters of rain fell in three hours. There are reports of missing people in some parts of the affected area.
State of emergency declared for the entire region
The storm turned the streets in several villages into torrents of water and mud overnight. Residents fled to the upper floors of their houses. Entire streets and fields in the area not far from Florence are still flooded. Houses, apartments and cars are under water. The storm caused extensive damage.
The President of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani, declared a state of emergency for the entire region on Friday morning. “There was an unprecedented wave of depth charges,” Giani said on Italian television. The fire department responded to more than 1,000 missions in the area during the night. In addition, more than 48,000 households in the area are without power. The town of Campi Bisenzio was hit worst. There a river overflowed its banks. Videos showed cars being swept away by floodwaters in a street.
Veneto is also affected
Although the rain had now let up, the very strong wind was making it difficult for the emergency services to carry out the clean-up and search work. Some residents are already shoveling mud out of their houses or putting soggy furniture on the side of the road. However, meteorologists fear that people in the region will have to prepare for rain and thunderstorms over the weekend.
The storms also raged in other parts of the Mediterranean country. The Veneto region in the northeast was also hit by rain and storms. Mud and uprooted trees dominate the picture. A firefighter who was stacking sandbags is missing there.
In the past few days, France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have also been affected by severe storms with heavy rain and storms. The storm “Ciaran” caused some major damage there. Seven people were killed and several were injured.
Train traffic in France is getting off to a slow start
In France, the clean-up work was in full swing the next day. Over half a million households were still without power on Friday morning. The worst affected regions are Brittany and Normandy, which were hardest hit by the storm with gusts of up to 200 kilometers per hour on Thursday. The damage from the storm in France could amount to 370 to 480 million euros.
The state railway SNCF said there are still disruptions to rail traffic, particularly in the north of France. Fallen trees blocked tracks and overhead lines were damaged. At the end of the autumn holidays, a million travelers were expected to arrive on Friday, albeit with delays, as Transport Minister Clément Beaune told the France 2 broadcaster.
“Ciaran” had also previously caused damage on the south coast of England and on the Channel Islands. Around 150,000 households now had no electricity, as the British news agency PA reported. There were still warnings of possible flooding in parts of the country. On the island of Jersey in the English Channel, for example, schools should remain closed on Friday.
In Belgium the situation has largely returned to normal. In the neighboring German country, where a child and another person died on Thursday, clean-up work continued. As a result, there may still be disruptions in rail traffic. The fire departments in various provinces of the country reported a total of well over 1,000 calls because of the storm.