The mobile dikes of the MOSE project (in yellow) should make it possible to limit the flooding of Venice this Saturday.
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ANDREA PATTARO / AFP
Floods left at least one dead and two missing overnight from Friday to Saturday in northern Italy, according to relief, and the heart of Venice should be submerged during the day.
Bad weather hit Lombardy, Veneto and Liguria, a region bordering the south-east of France where nine people were missing on Saturday after torrential rains and flash floods.
A volunteer firefighter died during an intervention in the Aosta Valley (north-west) and a man, of Italian nationality, is missing on the Franco-Italian border, near the Tende road tunnel.
Another person is reported missing in Piedmont.
An "acqua alta" Saturday noon
In Venice, locals and tourists converged to observe the “acqua alta”, an abnormal high tide flooding dozens of shops and hotels as well as the famous Saint Mark's Square.
The rise in water levels, expected to peak at midday, should be limited by a new system of mobile dikes.
The rating is estimated at 1.35 meters, against 1.87 m last year in November, one of the highest measurements ever recorded.
The MOSE project (Moïse in Italian, Experimental electromagnetic module) is a complex engineering system allowing “waterproofing” of the Serenissima thanks to 78 dikes placed at the entry points of the lagoon.
It is a network of caissons filled with water, supposed to be able to rise in 30 minutes, to create a barrier capable of withstanding a rise in water three meters above normal.
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