Bad weather in Italy, alert in 12 regions: damage in Tuscany. PHOTO

Bad weather, characterized by intense rain and strong gusts of wind, has hit Central Italy hard in the last few hours. In Rome, the operations room of the Fire Brigade carried out around 120 interventions in the night alone between 8pm yesterday and 8am this morning.

The requests for help in the capital mainly concerned falling trees, branches and telephone poles, as well as numerous water infiltrations into houses. During the night, a tree collapsed on a car, but fortunately no injuries were reported.

Tuscany is on orange alert until 5pm due to strong thunderstorms and hydrogeological risk. Experts report intense and persistent phenomena with hailstorms and gusts of wind, which have pushed many municipalities to close parks and cemeteries.

Schools remained closed in several Tuscan cities, including Livorno, Pistoia, Carrara, Grosseto and various municipalities in Lunigiana and Maremma. In Florence the markets and a tram stop were suspended, in Lucca the Walls were closed and in Viareggio the Viale dei Tigli.

The strong wind also caused a serious accident on the Siena-Florence connection, at the San Casciano Ovest service area, where a camper overturned due to a whirlwind. The firefighters pulled a couple out of the vehicle and handed them over to paramedics, while the canopy of the petrol station suffered damage.

The night of intense rain caused flooding and inconvenience in various areas of Carrara, in particular in the hamlets of Marina di Carrara and Avenza. Among the most delicate interventions was the one carried out in via Villafranca, where four families residing in a public residential building were evacuated due to leaks and critical issues found in the roof of the building. Eleven people were involved.

The disturbance prompted the Civil Protection to issue a yellow alert in 11 other Italian regions. The areas involved are Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Molise, Puglia and Umbria.

In Campania there were severe disruptions due to a violent storm in the Neapolitan area, with roads submerged in Casandrino and Giugliano. In Forio d'Ischia the wind uprooted trees and lightning seriously damaged the dome of the historic church of San Gaetano, forcing its closure.