Another fierce storm hit the Italian capital on the night of Sunday, and the large amount of precipitation also isolated the entire area of Messina in Sicily. Civil defense extended the weather alert until Monday.
A medium-level, so-called orange alert, has been ordered in the central Italian region of Lazio, as well as in the southern provinces of Campania, Calabria, Puglia and Sicily.
On Saturday, the storms in Rome followed each other, which peaked in the night hours: the city was flooded, which flooded the subways, metro stations, garages and basements. Several motorists and motorcyclists were helped by the firefighters during the hours of pouring rain.
The large amount of precipitation also flooded the small towns around Messina in eastern Sicily: the rainwater mixed with mud and debris swept along the streets of Milazzo, Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, and Terme Vigilatore like a rushing river. The mayor of Milazzo, Pippo Midili, called on the population on social media not to leave their homes or get into cars if possible. Several inhabited areas remained without electricity and were isolated.
In Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, the sea of mud covered the lowest level of the local hospital, and in Milazzo, water broke into a large shopping center. A section of the motorway between Palermo and Messina was closed, as well as several national roads. Two hundred and twenty millimeters of rain fell in the town of Novara di Sicilia in three hours.
The bad weather also returned to the island of Ischia after the landslide caused by the rain on December 3, in which eleven residents lost their lives. Before the arrival of the new rainfall, the vicinity of the Casamicciola settlement affected by the previous disaster was evacuated, and nearly a thousand people were relocated, more than four hundred of them were placed in hotels.
The featured image is an illustration.
Tags: Rome flooded rain settlements Sicily isolated bad weather
