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ROME (AFP) – Floods have killed 12 people on the island of Sicily in southern Italy, including nine members of the same family, relief services said Sunday (Nov. 4).
Six Italian regions remain on maximum alert in the event of a storm.
The bodies of nine people were found in their home in Casteldaccia, in the Palermo region, near a small river that had overflowed its banks, relief services announced. Among the victims, there was a one year old baby and children aged three and 15 years old.
Three other members of the same family managed to escape, one of them climbing a tree, reported the news agency Agi.
"It's a huge tragedy," said Sunday the mayor of the locality.
In another incident, a 44-year-old man was found dead in his car near Vicari, also in the Palermo area.
He had tried to reach a gas station where he had managed to help a colleague trapped. A passenger in the car has disappeared.
Rescuers are also looking for a doctor forced by the storm to abandon his car 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 car was caught in the floods in the region of Agrigento, a little further south of the island.
Troops were deployed to check the condition of the main roads on the Mediterranean island Sunday.
Earlier this week, floods in Sicily had closed many roads and mayors had ordered the closure of schools, public parks and underpasses.
A WEEK OF DEATH STORMS
Italy has been hit by a series of deadly storms over the past week, particularly in the north and around Venice. In total, they claimed the lives of more than 30 people, including those in Sicily, and caused considerable damage and disruption.
The forests of the north-east of the country have been flattened like matches.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini described the devastated territory and posted photos in a tweet Sunday after flying over the Alpine town of Belluno.
The picturesque fishing village of Portofino, near Genoa, famous holiday resort on the Italian Riviera, was only accessible by sea after the collapse of the main road. An emergency lane opened to let residents out was considered too dangerous.
The trees covering the mountains of the Dolomites range were reduced to matches, flattened by the winds that devastated the region of Veneto Thursday, November 1st.
"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."
The city of Venice canals, on the northeastern coast of Italy, has also experienced some of the worst floods in its history, in addition to having to withstand winds of up to 180 kilometers to the coast. 39; hour.
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".
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