There had not been such heavy rain in the Tuscany region for 50 years. The consequences were devastating. At least six people have died and another is missing after severe flooding caused by Storm Ciarán in Italy. The situation is extremely serious, especially in Tuscany, in the center of the country, the most affected region, where alarms have been activated due to heavy rainfall. But also in Liguria, where the governor has already requested a state of emergency be declared. The storm has claimed at least seven more lives in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium and Spain and caused wind gusts of more than 200 kilometers per hour.
Eugenio Giani, the President of Tuscany, declared this Friday after the inspection carried out by helicopter over the affected areas of the municipalities of Campi Bisenzio, Prato and Quarrata that the images left by the storm were “devastating”, reporting that the A landslide has caused the Forced closure of a section of the Florence-Pisa-Livorno motorway.
Firefighters in Campi Bisenzio, near Florence, on Thursday evening.HANDOUT (AFP)
In Campi Bisenzio (46,000 inhabitants), a municipality in the Florence region where the situation is most serious and where the Bisenzio River overflowed its banks in two sections on Thursday night, residents had to climb onto the roofs of their houses, to get to safety and ask for help, according to local media. Civil protection helicopters have been flying over the area since dawn to bring the situation under control and firefighters have evacuated families. The deceased are four elderly people, three in the town of Montemurlo (Prato) and one in Rosignano (Livorno province), as well as a couple from Lamporecchio (Pistoia province) who went missing near Vinci (metropolitan area). Florence), where his car was washed away by water and mud. The storm also caused significant power outages.
“We have just sent inflatable boats to Seano, Quarrata and Campi Bisenzio, areas otherwise difficult to access at the moment, to carry out the first emergency inspection and we have also requested civil protection helicopters for the urgent transport of people,” he said. Giani, who announced that he is in contact with the government to declare a national state of emergency. “The situation is really very serious,” said the Tuscan president on Thursday evening.
Victims in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain
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The storm has claimed two lives in France: a truck driver who died in the Aisne department (north) after a tree fell on his vehicle, and a second victim who fell from his balcony while trying to open an awning in the city port to close from Le Havre, according to the government and the public prosecutor’s office. In addition, the country’s Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, increased the number of injured to 47 and reported “significant material damage.”
Ciarán, which first hit the south of England – where it led to the closure of hundreds of schools – moved after crossing the English Channel to northwest France, where it left 1.2 million people without power, 523,000 of whom remained without power this Friday morning. In addition, the storm has led to the suspension of train and ferry services in some of the affected countries.
For their part, the Belgian authorities have mourned the death of two people in the city of Ghent. One of the victims is a tourist of German origin, the other a five-year-old child. In the case of the Netherlands, a 59-year-old man died in the town of Venray (in the south of the country) after being hit by a tree branch, Dutch police said. In Germany, a 46-year-old woman died after a tree fell on her while she was hiking with her husband and two children in the town of Goslar, Lower Saxony. The storm, which also killed one person and injured five in Spain, has prompted Slovenian authorities to issue alerts in several regions, with the red level in effect in some parts of the country.
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