Record rainfall in Veneto: banks fail, floods and landslides. The Treviso area was also affected. Zaia: “48 devastating hours”
Hundreds of families with water at home, a hospice evacuated. "Government declares a state of emergency"
BOLOGNA – Veneto is dealing with the situation after two days of incessant rain. In the morning the fury of the precipitation subsided, but the situation due to the bad weather “is critical: we have experienced 48 hours of record rainfall, with embankment breaches, flooding and overflows”. The president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, is not beating around the bush and will hold a press conference today to take stock of the situation. The Region, announcing the meeting with the media, speaks of a “serious wave of bad weather that hit the Veneto, causing serious damage in various parts of the territory”.
STOP PRECIPITATION. BUT CRITICAL SITUATIONS IN THE TREVIGIAN REGION
The Civil Protection of the Veneto issued a bulletin at 7 with an update of the weather situation which indicates that in the last six hours there has been no precipitation, but different situations critical for last night’s heavy rainfall in almost all provinces. The heavy rains over a short period of time, a note states, “resulted in extensive and significant flooding involving the inhabited centers of the municipalities of Asolo and Castelfranco Veneto“. Further flooding has been reported in the municipalities of Quarto d’Altino, Altivole, Casier, Fonte, Mogliano Veneto. The embankment of the Muson dei Sassi in the Municipality of Camposampiero occurred with the diversion of the waters towards the territories east of the Camposampiero area and confined to the south by the embankment of the Muson Vecchio. Landslides have been reported which are obstructing traffic in the foothills of Treviso and Belluno. Widespread flooding remains mainly in theprovinces of Vicenza and Padua due to the rainfall of the past two days.
THE FORECAST: NEW SHOWERS IN CENTRAL-EASTERN MOUNTAIN AND PEDEMOUNTAIN AREAS
The weather forecast for Veneto indicates that in the morning there will be mainly no precipitation, while from the central hours some new scattered precipitation will be possible, including showers or local thunderstorms, especially in central-eastern mountain-foothill areas. During the day the flood peaks will pass through the plain-mouth sections of the Piave, Livenza, Brenta and Bacchiglione. The Bisatto and Fratta-Gorzone will be able to maintain high levels due to the disposal of the water present in the secondary network. In the absence of precipitation, the mountainous portions of the watercourses will continue to show decreases in levels.
ZAIA: GOVERNMENT DECLARES A STATE OF EMERGENCY
It was a “devastating and important” 48 hours, from last afternoon to half past two in the morning in Veneto “we had everything”. OnRadio 24Luca Zaia, president of Veneto, speaks of the ‘blow’ of the bad weather on the region where a clearing is now expected, even if the guard remains very high.The scenario “is emergency and I hope the Government declares it quickly”. The bad weather has put “hundreds of families in difficulty, yesterday 200, today many more: there are no displaced people, but families with water at home“, says Zaia. A couple of hospitals in difficulty, like the one in Camposampiero (here there is water in the basement), “but not seriously”; ditto, a couple of retirement homes (an evacuation was ordered for one). The breaking of the embankment in Camposampiero had reverberations in the Paduan and Venetian areas, “but at 4 this morning the excavators were already there to search to plug the leak.” Then the canals in the Asolo area overflowed (Asolo is under water in its lower part).
Zaia, however, reiterates thatwithout the lamination basins Vicenza would have ended up floodedand without basins “I have no idea of the size of the disaster that would occur” now. It is also true that the basins are sized for “extraordinary events, but not at these levels”. In other words, climate change “forces us to review the model because we have understood that water bombs are the real problem”: now we have to deal with “equatorial downpours that we are not used to”.
