After the wave of bad weather in Liguria and Tuscany, orange alert remains in 4 regions

Over 10 migrants rescued in the bed of the Roja river, in Ventimiglia, where they had camped. This is the balance sheet, updated as of yesterday evening, of the wave of bad weather that hit Liguria and Tuscany on November 12th. The sudden flood of the river overwhelmed a group of migrants who lived under a railway overpass and who were overwhelmed by the sudden rise of the water. The firefighters intervened and, together with the divers, are checking for the presence of other people dragged away from the water. To allow the research, the coastal railway line was interrupted.

Flooding and pumps on

Also in Liguria yesterday the Lavagna flooded near Genoa. Streams and canals remain under observation, as in nearby Tuscany. On the flooded Magra, the river that flows through the two regions, the water pumps were turned on to drain the water, while a great deal of civil protection work was carried out since yesterday in Carrara and Massa for the rivers within the town, the Carrione and the Parmignola in the city of marble, the Frigido in Marina di Massa, where it overflowed into the floodplain and where reinforcement operations on the banks were necessary, with landfill. Flooding, tree falls and landslides have hit the area.

In Massa there are around a hundred people displaced by a landslide that isolated two hamlets, Casette and Forno. Another landslide caused the closure of the Cisa state road at km 8 between Aulla and Santo Stefano Magra, in the Spezzino area where today's truce allowed the first repairs and the start of damage counting. The fragile hill collapsed in other parts of the province of Massa Carrara, where torrents flowed out into Lunigiana. RFI has arranged technical checks on the Aulla-Garfagnana and Pontremolese minor railway lines. On the opposite side of the region, the Faentina railway in Mugello, from Borgo San Lorenzo to Faenza, widely used by commuters between Romagna and Tuscany, has been closed for similar checks due to risks of landslides on the tracks and other inconveniences caused by bad weather.

Special observed rivers and streams

The Serchio river in Tuscany was also under special surveillance and had two spectacular floods in less than 24 hours, with a flow rate of 1100 m3/second at the Maddalena bridge, also known as the Devil's bridge, in Borgo a Mozzano, upstream from Lucca, where the water came out, flooding the interrupted Brenner state road 12. Downstream, near the mouth, the mayor of San Giuliano Terme (Pisa) ordered the precautionary evacuation of residents in the last floodplain of the Serchio - 26 people - and the closure of a bridge. Winds and sea currents push against the coast, together with the disturbance, and this makes it difficult for the rivers to flow. In Poveromo, a low-sloping stream on the border between Massa and Versilia, pumps have been activated to discharge water into the sea. Inland, the Reno and the Ombrone Pistoiese reached the second alert level in the evening and the expansion tanks were opened. The Ombrone is one of the waterways that in the past has caused problems by flooding the surrounding territories. Surveillance also in the Prato area where the Bisenzio river, fed by the rains in the Apennines, is on its first watch.

Today yellow alert in Tuscany, Liguria on orange alert until 2pm