The Italian regions of Piedmont and Liguria have called on the government to declare a state of emergency after the severe floods that devastated part of the northwest of the Transalpine Peninsula.
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Torrential rains - more than 60 centimeters locally - fell between Friday and Saturday in Piedmont, Liguria, Val d'Aosta and to a lesser extent Lombardy, causing rivers to emerge from their beds and causing flash floods, floods and landslides.
Torrents of water and mud have invaded towns, villages and roads, destroyed several bridges, submerged businesses and homes, washed away houses and vehicles.
In places, the Po River is three meters above its usual level.
The last human toll reported Sunday morning two dead, a volunteer firefighter and a motorist, and two missing.
The Mediterranean rejected two bodies on the shore, one in Ventimiglia, the other in San Remo, but it is too early according to the authorities to count them among the victims of the bad weather.
Mud has covered the roads and sidewalks of Ventimiglia.
FEDERICO SCOPPA / AFP
Regional and state experts continued to assess the material damage, but Piedmont and Liguria have already appealed for national solidarity.
The regional presidents jointly signed a letter asking the government to declare a state of emergency.
“
The situation is very serious.
It's like in 1994
”, when the Po and Tarano floods killed 70 people, Piedmont President Alberto Cirio told the daily La Stampa.
"
With a difference, it is that 630 mm of water fell in 24 hours, unheard of in such a short time since 1954
", he assured.
The regions, according to him, are already strangled by the economic consequences of the confinement observed by Italy because of the coronavirus pandemic which has killed nearly 36,000 people in the country.
“
Initially the region will release funds intended to cover natural disasters.
But we are in an extraordinary situation at an already extraordinary moment in itself.
Because of the pandemic, the region will receive 200 million euros in tax revenue less this year.
If the state does not intervene, we will not get up,
”he warned.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has promised “
maximum attention
” from his government and President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella has assured the regions of its “
proximity to the territories
”.
Concern for migrants
In Ventimiglia, not far from the French border, traders were hard at work Sunday morning to clean their shops drowned by water and mud, noted an AFP correspondent.
The coastal town does not officially deplore any dead or missing but an association is concerned about the fate of migrants, many of whom usually gather on the banks of the Roya River.
La Roya in flood in Ventimiglia.
FEDERICO SCOPPA / AFP
"
The already serious toll could get even worse if we count the number of people, often migrants, who occupy the banks of Roya
" at a time when the river has swept away everything in its path, wrote the association Sanremo Solidale .
"
If these people (vulnerable women, children) were taken away by the current, we may find them again after a while, on a beach, in Saint-Tropez or elsewhere,
" she said.
Italy feared a much heavier human toll on Saturday, reporting 22 missing, including 21 crossing the Col de Tende, on the French side, in the hinterland of Nice.
Finally, these people were located in the town of Viévola, and evacuated.
The operation ended after the return to Italy of the last eight castaways on the road, five Italians and three French, aboard a firefighter helicopter, emergency services said Sunday.
