"Total disaster": Italian storms kill at least 30 people

The floods killed 12 people on the island of Sicily, including nine members of the same family, pushing Italy beyond 30 dead, rescuers said Sunday.

After the breakup of a river, the bodies of the family, including children of 1, 3 and 15 years old, were discovered in the coastal town of Casteldaccia, east of the capital Palermo.

Relief services said that the house where they spent the weekend was submerged with water and mud. The other victims were between 32 and 65 years old.

Three family members managed to escape, one climbing a tree where he stayed more than two hours, reported the news agency Agi.

"I lost everything, I only have my daughter left," said one of the survivors, Giuseppe Giordano, 35, to the press.

His wife, two other children, his parents, his brother and sister, his nephew and the boy's grandmother all died, he said.

After flying over Casteldaccia on Sunday, Sicilian prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio described scenes of "total disaster".

The authorities opened an investigation to determine if houses built near the river were in compliance with safety standards.

In another incident in Sicily, a 44-year-old man was found dead in his car near Vicari, also in the Palermo area.

He was trying to reach a gas station, where he was the manager, to help a colleague stuck there. A 20-year-old passenger in the car with him is still missing.

Rescuers are also looking for a 40-year-old doctor, forced by the storm to abandon his car on the road near the town of Corleone after trying to get to work at the hospital.

Two other people, a man and a woman, died after their rental car was washed away by a torrent in the Agrigento region, rescuers said.

Strong winds and heavy rains killed at least 20 people this week throughout Italy, particularly in the north.

Two people were reported killed on Friday, including a 62-year-old German tourist struck by lightning in Sardinia.

Six regions remain on high alert in the event of a storm.

The weather has caused considerable damage and disruption. Trees in the vast mountainside forests of the north-east of the country have been flattened like matches by strong winds.

"It's like after an earthquake," said Veneto Region Governor Luca Zaia. "Thousands of acres of forest have been razed, as by a giant electric saw."

On Sunday, after flying over the area with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Zaia said the storms destroyed 100,000 hectares of pine forests.

Salvini published Sunday photos of the devastation in a series of tweets after also flying over the Alpine town of Belluno.

"We need 40 billion euros (45.5 billion dollars) to secure the national territory," he said.

He pledged to collect and spend this money but, in a turnaround next to the European Union, said he hoped his plans would not cause excessive complaints from Brussels.

Europe is opposed to Italy's draft budget, which it believes would aggravate the already considerable deficit of the country.

The city of Venice canals, on the northeast coast of Italy, has also experienced some of the worst floods in its history and winds of up to 180 km / h.

The picturesque fishing village of Portofino, near Genoa, a seaside resort on the Italian Riviera, was only accessible by sea after the collapse of the main road.

Floods in Sicily closed many roads this week and mayors ordered the closure of schools, public parks and underpasses.

On Sunday, troops were deployed to check the state of the main roads of the Mediterranean island.

The Italian civil protection agency has qualified the weather that rages in the country this week from "one of the most complex weather situations of the last 50 to 60 years".

Explore further:
13 deaths from floods in southwestern France