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MILAN (Reuters) – Heavy rains and devastating gusts of wind in Italy claimed the lives of two other people, at least 17 dead, and devastated vast tracts of forest.
Fallen trees are seen in the mountains near Belluno, Italy, November 3, 2018. Vigili del Fuoco / Handout via REUTERS
A German tourist died Friday after being struck by lightning on the island of Sardinia, while another person struck by lightning died a few days ago at the hospital, announced Saturday. Civil Protection Agency of Italy.
A spokeswoman said 17 weather-related deaths had been reported to the agency so far.
To date, many victims have been killed by falling trees. Coldiretti, the association of Italian agricultural companies, said in a statement that the high winds had destroyed about 14 million trees, many in the far north.
The regions from the far north-east to Sicily, to the southwest, have been affected by storms. The regions of Trentino and Veneto, located in the north of the country, around Venice, were the most affected. Villages and roads were cut by landslides.
In the Alps near Belluno, 100 km north of Venice, pines and red spruce were broken like matches.
The surface of the Comelico Superiore dam, further north, near the Austrian border, was covered with fallen tree trunks in the Piave river.
"It will take us at least a century to get back to normal," Coldiretti said.
Most of Venice's pedestrian squares and walkways have been submerged by the most severe floods that the canal city has seen in a decade.
The governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, said that the damage caused by the storm amounted to at least one billion euros (1.1 billion dollars).
Angelo Borrelli, head of the civil protection agency, said that Veneto had seen winds of up to 180 km / h (112 mph), and that the situation there was " apocalyptic ".
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was scheduled to visit the region on Sunday.
($ 1 = 0.8783 euros)
Stephen Jewkes report; Edited by Kevin Liffey
