(ANSA) - PALERMO, 11 NOV - For the second day Sicily was hit by bad weather. The incessant rains caused great inconvenience especially for the flooded streets and the collapse of trees and rubble. Damage also to agriculture. And the forecasts do not promise significant improvements. From the night of today still thunderstorms on the eastern sectors of Sicily. This is indicated by a weather alert from the Civil Protection, which foresees strong showers, frequent electrical activity and strong gusts of wind. Evaluated for tomorrow orange alert for hydrogeological risk on eastern Sicily and southern Calabria; while on central-southern Sicily and central-northern Calabria it is yellow alert.
Already in the morning a risk situation was recorded between Sciacca, Menfi, Mazara del Vallo and in the Corleonese area.
Numerous fire brigade teams and civil protection volunteers were busy rescuing motorists and residents trapped by the floods. In Sciacca, two motorists climbed onto the roof of the car to save themselves. The road they were traveling on has been turned into a river. And a retaining wall collapsed behind a 7-story building. The inhabitants of two buildings were evicted. Several cars were affected by the collapse which caused the collapse of a portion of the asphalt road.
The firefighters also intervened with a rubber dinghy in Menfi, in the Lido dei Fiori area, to rescue some residents, including two elderly people stranded in their house invaded by water. Altogether 22 families were rescued. Debris and mud have invaded and made the roads impassable, such as state highway 188 between Palazzo Adriano and Prizzi. The dewatering pumps worked all night to try to free roads and houses from the water also in Sambuca di Sicilia, Favara and Campobello di Mazara. Five elderly people, including a disabled person, were rescued by the Sfa (Alluvial River Rescue) group of the Fire Brigade in Mazara del Vallo in the Trapani area where the strong wind ripped off the roofs of sheds and knocked down walls. Olive groves and vineyards were submerged by thewater, supermarkets flooded between Castelvetrano and Selinunte, the damage from bad weather amounts to millions of euros. The Geolive company, a large structure that deals with table olives, with a plant covering about 100 thousand square meters, has been submerged by water: the large bins where the olives are placed with water and soda float in the huge open space of the company and have also invaded the lane of the road that leads to Marinella di Selinunte. An Air Force helicopter rescued a team of three firefighters and five operators from the Mazara del Vallo wind farm blocked by a flooding river.with a plant covering about 100 thousand square meters, it was submerged by water: the large bins where the olives are placed with water and soda float in the huge area of the company and have also invaded the lane of the road that leads to Marinella di Selinunte. An Air Force helicopter rescued a team of three firefighters and five operators from the Mazara del Vallo wind farm blocked by a flooding river.with a plant covering about 100 thousand square meters, it was submerged by water: the large bins where the olives are placed with water and soda float in the huge area of the company and have also invaded the lane of the road that leads to Marinella di Selinunte. An Air Force helicopter rescued a team of three firefighters and five operators from the Mazara del Vallo wind farm blocked by a flooding river.Aeronautica Militare rescued a team of three firefighters and five operators from the Mazara del Vallo wind farm blocked by a flooding river.Aeronautica Militare rescued a team of three firefighters and five operators from the Mazara del Vallo wind farm blocked by a flooding river.
The damage to the countryside is very large. Devastated vineyards, olive groves and orchards and flooded fields but also anti-hail nets and company fences that have flown away, supports the monitoring of Coldiretti nell'Agrigentino, based on data from the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD).
"The effects of climate change at the center of the UN conference in Glasgow Cop26 can therefore also be seen in Italy where - underlines Coldiretti - the exceptional nature of atmospheric events is now the norm, with a tendency to tropicalization that manifests itself with a higher frequency of violent events, seasonal delays, short and intense rainfall and the rapid transition from the sun to bad weather, which also compromise crops in the fields with damage for over 2 billion euros in 2021, including losses of national agricultural production and damage to structures and infrastructure in the countryside ".
(HANDLE).