2023-11-03 10:50:00
The Bisenzio River overflowed its banks and flooded several communities. The cities of Prato, Empoli and Pontedera were particularly affected, whose hospitals were flooded, as the president of the Tuscany region, Eugenio Giani, reported.
The fatalities include 3 pensioners. An 85-year-old pensioner was found dead on the ground floor of his home in the Tuscan town of Montemurlo near Prato, Italian media reported. The disabled man was found lifeless in his house, which had been invaded by water. He had tried in vain to reach safety upstairs. An 84-year-old woman died in Montemurlo. The third fatality was found in Rosignano, near the port city of Livorno.
The dead also include a couple whose car was swept away by water and mud in the municipality of Vinci near Florence. The government in Rome wants to declare a state of emergency due to the storms at a Council of Ministers meeting scheduled for Friday. The aim is to take faster measures for help and compensation.
The President of Tuscany declared a state of emergency in the region. In the small town of Campi Bisenzio in the province of Florence, 800 hectares of area were flooded and several people had to leave their homes. Some of them even had to climb onto the roofs of their houses to save themselves from the water. The fire brigade had to be deployed over a thousand times in Tuscany on Friday night to bring people to safety.
The mayor of the city of Prato north of Florence, Matteo Biffoni, spoke of the devastating situation. “The situation is shocking, now we have to work hard to clear the city of mud,” Biffoni wrote on social networks. Thousands of households were without power due to the storms. Parts of the A11 motorway had to be closed. There were significant problems with rail traffic. Schools in Tuscany will remain closed on Friday.
The railway line between Prato and Pistoia was interrupted. Schools in Tuscany remained closed on Friday. In the Tuscan port city of Livorno, ships had to stay in port because of winds that reached speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour. The ferry connection to the island of Elba was interrupted.
The northern Italian region of Veneto was also badly affected by the storms. One person went missing in the Dolomites province of Belluno. This is a firefighter who was not on duty. He is said to have fallen into a river. A second missing person was reported in the Verona area. Severe storms were also reported in the Emilia Romagna region and Lombardy. In Milan, the Seveso River swelled, having already overflowed its banks on Tuesday and flooded some quarters of the financial metropolis. There were devastating storms in Emilia Romagna in May, killing 15 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
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