MSG093G/01E ITALY: Devastating Storms Continue
ROME, Nov 08 (IPS) - Italy continued to be overwhelmed Tuesday by catastrophic weather in the northern region, where storms have caused devastating floods with increasing numbers of dead and missing people.
Official reports put the death toll near around 100, with 54 bodies recovered so far and dozens more people missing. It is feared that actual figures may be much higher, as nothing has been heard from many towns where communication has not yet been recovered.
The Civil Defence Ministry estimated that 5,000 people will be left homeless, with 6.6 billion dollars' worth of damage and incalculable harm to Italian artistic and environmental heritage.
Hundreds of businesses are at a standstill, including Italy's largest multinational corporation, Fiat, which has suspended production only once before, in the midst of World War II.
Torrential rains depositing up to 22 centimetres per hour are spreading to the east, towards the Padana plain in Lombardy, one of the major industrial and agricultural centres in the country, while 400,000 hectares of crops were destroyed in Piamonte.
In Asti, a neighbouring city to Fiat's home in Turin, flooding reached four metres. "Why didn't they warn us that the floods would come so high?" sobbed Loredana Martino, who took refuge on the roof of her house with her two daughters.
According to National Geophysics Institute President Enzo Boschi, the rate at which the waters have risen took Civil Defense experts by surprise, and by the time they thought to warn people, it was too late.
"If you had asked me yesterday, I would have told you that this was impossible," he said.
Some 10,000 volunteers, firemen, Civil Defence members and soldiers were still at work Tuesday, searching for survivors amidst the mud and ruins.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was booed and jeered on his visit to the most seriously affected areas of Lombardy, Piamonte and Liguria, refuted criticism of delays in assistance given to the flood victims.
The Italian Cabinet took its first measures Tuesday, declaring a national state of emergency and creating special relief funds for the northern region.
© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service