Water returns to Cogne and this time it is drunk boiled

The municipal aqueduct, damaged by the flood on Saturday night, has been restored. While the evictions continue: over a thousand people taken away by helicopters

COGNE – Water has returned to Cogne, from the taps. The municipal aqueduct, damaged by the flood in the night between Saturday and Sunday, has in fact been restored but as a precaution the water must be boiled first of its use for food purposes.

Security operations continue. Today another 300 people will be evacuated by helicopter. As of yesterday, a total of 853 people had left the country. Four helicopters from the Regional Civil Protection worked with on board technicians from the Aosta Valley Alpine Rescue, one from the Financial Police, one from the Firefightersand two of the Carabinieris.
Meanwhile, work continues for a slow return to normality with the restoration of the connection along the regional road to Cogne, interrupted in three points, and evaluations of the technical solutions, timing and costs. By this morning the road to Lillaz will be restored, while for Valnontey a track has been made for excavation and emergency vehicles. In the morning, the Minister of Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci, from Sky Tg 24, was unbalanced, but not too much, on the restoration times. In reference to the regional road he said: “That artery which is important and strategic, I fear it cannot be put together and made viable in the space of a month”.

While Deborah Bionaz, Tourism Councilor of the small municipality, intervened on the unexpected quantity of water that rained on Cogne in a few hours. “In six hours, 90 millimeters of water fell on the area, which is something extraordinary. The forecasts were more optimistic.” She said this while speaking to the microphones of Radio Cusano Campus, guest of the in-depth program “L’Italia s’è desta”, hosted by the director of the radio newspaper Gianluca Fabi and Roberta Feliziani, to talk about the storm which isolated the town during the night between Saturday and Sunday. “The forecasts – says the councilor – gave a yellow alert, which in any case is a moderate alert, this is because a storm was expected on Saturday afternoon. In recent years, thanks to climate change, forecasts in the mountains are becoming increasingly difficult and the weather is increasingly variable.” As for the damages, “we are a tourist resort, it is obvious that for us they will be enormous, because it still means having lost, if not the entire season, at least the entire month of July. Now we are trying to understand how organize ourselves”.