Bad weather in the North West, four more victims. Piedmont and Liguria ask for a state of emergency

• Bad weather emergency in the North-West: two victims, but one missing were found.

  Two bridges collapsed

• France, bad weather: at least two dead, several people are missing in the Nice region

• Venice, Mose rises for the first time against high water.

  Piazza San Marco dry

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04 October 2020

The toll of the violent wave of bad weather, which devastated the North West, is 6 dead.

After the discovery yesterday of two bodies (a volunteer firefighter in Valle d'Aosta and a young man in Vercelli), four were found in these hours.

Three in Liguria: one was along the Roya river, in the locality of Trucco, a fraction of Ventimiglia.

On-site law enforcement for identification.

The other two discovered this morning have not yet been identified, still in Ventimiglia, on the promenade beach of Oberdan, and in Sanremo, in the Tre Ponti.

It is hypothesized that they may be victims of bad weather, even if there are, so far, no people missing in the region.

The fourth victim is instead the herdsman from Limone Piemonte (Cuneo) who was missing yesterday in Val Roya, on the French side of Colle di Tenda.

The body was recovered from the Roya River.

To report his disappearance, on Friday evening when the fury of bad weather raged, was his brother, rescued by the fire brigade with four French firemen.

They had taken refuge in the Tenda Tunnel and to recover them it was necessary to use a bulldozer.

Also in the Roya valley today a helicopter of the Italian Fire Brigade has brought a family of 4 herdsmen to the valley, including two elderly people, in the pastures of the Casterino locality, in Tenda.

Another herdsman, in another mountain pasture in the area, preferred to stay in the high mountains.

And the searches for the missing hunter since yesterday have resumed in Palestro, in the province of Pavia.

The man, residing in the province of Brescia, was engaged in a hunting trip along the banks of the Sesia.

Following the raising of the river level, the 77-year-old took refuge in an abandoned farmhouse, in the hamlet of Pizzarrosto di Palestro (Pavia), which was then flooded by the Sesia.

This morning the fire brigade helicopter completed the recovery of the 17 isolated people in the Sant'Antonio hamlet of Corteno Golgi, in the upper Camonica Valley (Brescia).

The detachment of a landslide of about 100 meters due to heavy rain yesterday interrupted the only road to the hamlet.

On site, the technicians who will have to intervene in the next few hours to restore the road and secure the area. 

More rains arriving in Piedmont in the afternoon, where the ARPA (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection) confirms the yellow alert in the north of the region, in the northern plain (which concerns 6 of the 8 provinces, from Alessandria to Vercelli), in the Belbo, Bormida and Scrivia valleys, between Alessandrino, Asti and Cuneese.

Floods and landslides are expected, "residual criticalities on Lake Maggiore".

Particularly serious situation in Limone in Piedmont.

'A catastrophe', says the mayor.

Three collapsed bridges.

The one on the Sesia, between Romagnano and Gattinara, had been reopened at 12 in a direct Fb of the two mayors.

The other two in Valtrebbia in Piacentino, on the state road 45 which connects Piacenza and Genoa;

and in Bagnasco, in the Cuneo area, overwhelmed by the Tanaro.

Isolated Omea, between the province of Cuneo and the border with Liguria.

In Venice, the Mose barriers were raised for the first time, the tide rose only 75 centimeters and St. Mark's Square remained dry.

The flood ridge of the Po reached a level of 4.64 meters, a value between the criticality thresholds of level 2 (4.50 meters) and 3 (5.50 meters).

This is what emerges from the latest survey by the Interregional Agency for the Po River (Aipo).

"The peak of the Po flood - reads the Aipo note - is currently passing through Ponte della Becca with values ​​around the criticality threshold 2 (moderate, orange)" and it is expected that from the Pavia area " the peak transits in Piacenza during the night, with moderate levels of criticality (threshold 2, orange) and in Cremona in the course of tomorrow (5 October), with values ​​that should remain at level 1 of criticality (ordinary, yellow) " .

Finally, the Aipo notes that "open floodplains may be affected by the flood" and that "caution is recommended in areas facing the river".

Piedmont and Liguria have asked the government for a state of emergency.

In 24 hours, rainfall broke the historical record since 1958, causing extensive damage.   

To lose his life was a 36-year-old boy, Samuel Pregnolato, resident in Quarona, in the Vercelli area, whose body was recovered on the shore of the Sesia river in Borgosesia.

The man's car went into the river on Friday night.

The 21-year-old brother managed to save himself by clinging to some branches.

The alluvial event that struck Piedmont was characterized by exceptional rainfall over most of the territory, with peaks of 630 mm in Sambughetto (Vb), 610 mm in Piedicavallo (Bi) and 580 mm in Limone Piemonte (Cn) in sunshine 24 hours.

The intense and concentrated rains have produced extensive and widespread flooding of waterways, erosion of the banks and, in some cases, the collapse of bridges.

Landslides, mudslides and transport of material have caused damage to road infrastructures and inhabited centers.   

The Turin-Milan motorway was interrupted for a few hours, while the Turin-Aosta between Scarmagno and Quincinetto remains closed.

The alert remains orange pending the transit of the flood wave, which could cause local flooding, and due to the increase in the levels of Lake Maggiore.

The areas at risk are the Tanaro, Belbo and Bormida valleys in the Cuneo area, along the Toce river in the Novarese and Verbano areas, and in the northern plain.

On the other hand, the yellow alert in Turin has been confirmed.

108 municipalities are affected.

Still numerous users without electricity.

Enel communicated 2700 in Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, 2360 in the province of Vercelli, 1500 in the province of Cuneo, 1000 in the province of Biella, 240 in the province of Novara, 180 in the province of Turin, 13 in the Alessandria area.

To manage the emergency, about 80 Municipal Operational Centers (Coc) have been activated and over 700 volunteers are active throughout the region.

The operations room of the Civil Protection in Corso Marche, in Turin, open 24 hours a day, open from 8 yesterday. 

"The situation is very serious. It is like 1994, with the difference that this time 630 mm of rain fell in 24 hours. Such a massive precipitation in such a limited period of time does not it has been happening since 1954 ".

Thus, in an interview with the Press, the president of the Piedmont Region Alberto Cirio. "I spoke with the president of the Civil Protection Borrelli, with the ministers Boccia and De Micheli. On Tuesday, after having visited all the affected provinces, I will be in Rome to reiterate that we need the resources to start again as soon as possible. I am comforted by the phone call from President Mattarella: he assured us that the State will not leave us alone. He is an extraordinary person, I place the utmost trust in him "."

Bad weather has hit some very limited areas but with great force: the valleys of the Cuneo area close to France and Liguria. And then Vercelli, Biella. We diverted the Civil Protection of the less involved provinces to the affected areas. The response was quick and effective. I heard the president of Liguria Toti : together we have agreed on the request for a state of emergency, already signed and sent to Rome ".

"In Liguria the work continues unabated to deal with the damage caused by the latest wave of bad weather. In Triora, the only locality that has remained isolated due to a landslide, the National Department of At our request, Civil Protection has already sent a nucleus of the Army Engineers Regiment to verify the feasibility of restoring the viability of the provincial road, which we hope will happen as soon as possible. In Airole, on the other hand, in just 24 hours we made it passable for emergency vehicles the damaged section of the state road 20 and by tomorrow the road will be accessible again by everyone in alternating one-way direction. Yesterday we had 20 thousand electric utilities out of service throughout the Region, 15 thousand were fixed in 24 hours and the remaining 5 thousand will be restored in the morning. to work to return to normal as soon as possible, let's remember not to let our guard down: soon the center and the whole east will

igure will return on yellow alert for thunderstorms until midnight today.

Thanks to forecasters, technicians and volunteers of our Civil Protection for the extraordinary work they are doing even in these hours.

As always, maximum attention ". The president of the Liguria Region, Giovanni Toti, writes on Facebook.

" We are very worried, the landslide is active.

It is not possible to stop it, it is necessary to make a definitive intervention. "Thus the deputy mayor of Casarsa Ligure (Genoa), Maurizio Miglietta, spoke to RaiNews24. The ground is not safe and a recess is forming under the road which risks giving way. "It is the only main street in the town, school buses and buses pass through here - he explains -.

We will remain isolated, we must necessarily do the intervention.

The town is wounded: the square was submerged by the landslide.

We have a 10-kilometer dirt road that connects us to the neighboring town, but that too is inaccessible. "

The body presumably of a man was found this morning in the debris that the storm of the last few hours brought ashore in Tre Ponti di Sanremo by a policeman who was practicing jogging. The carabinieri of the local company intervened on the spot with the coast guard and medical personnel. The body, apparently naked, will be recovered in the next hours. Among the hypotheses also that it is one of the people missing during the wave of bad weather that hit the area.

Another lifeless body was found on the beach in Ventimiglia. The harbor master intervened together to the carabinieri. It is also not excluded that they may be some of the people who disappeared during the last wave of bad weather in France. In the area of ​​Ventimiglia and de

In the extreme western Liguria there are no reports of missing persons.