Extensive damage after storm Alex hit northwestern Italy

Storm Alex also severely hit northwestern Italy.

Here in Garessio, in the Piedmont.

VINCENZO PINTO / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In the border regions of France - Piedmont, Liguria, Val d'Aosta - the weather services predicted 400 mm of rain on Saturday.

600 fell. Overwhelmed by the needs of the populations and the extent of the damage, these regions requested urgent help from the government.

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With our correspondent in Rome

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This is unheard of in the region since it fell on Saturday, in northwestern Italy, in a few hours, as much rain as in six months.

Cut roads, collapsed bridges, impassable tunnels, rivers and torrents swollen by alluvium have demolished many infrastructures.

Many inhabitants had to be evacuated, and the material toll will be very heavy.

In northern Italy, as in the

, roads were destroyed, dozens of houses were washed away, water treatment plants were destroyed.

The storm also killed two people in Italy.

The body of a French shepherd was also found in the Roya River, Italian firefighters announced on Sunday.

Several people are still missing, Italian and French side.

Firefighters, civil protection, nearly a thousand volunteers are at work to restore electricity, clear traffic routes, rescue isolated towns, and look for possible victims in still difficult conditions.

The situation already deemed apocalyptic by the local press could worsen since the weather forecast forecasts new record precipitation this Sunday.

The Italian regions of Piedmont and Liguria have asked Rome to declare a state of emergency.

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