Venice struggles with devastation wrought by high tide
VENICE: Venetians woke to devastating scenes after an exceptional high tide washed through the historic Italian city, beaching gondolas, trashing hotels and sending tourists fleeing through rapidly rising waters.
Shopkeepers on the Grand Canal raged against those who had failed to protect the Unesco city from the high tide, blaming corruption for the much-delayed barrier protection system which could have prevented yesterday’s disaster.
“The city is on its knees,” Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in an interview with national broadcaster RAI in the famed St Mark’s Square, which bore the brunt of the flooding.
“There’s widespread devastation.” Tourists lugging heavy suitcases waded in thigh-high galoshes or barefoot through the submerged alleys, as water taxi and gondola drivers baled sewage-tainted water out of their trashed vessels.
The exceptionally intense “acqua alta”, or high waters, peaked at 1.87m. Only once since records began in 1923 has the water crept even higher, reaching 1.94m in 1966.
“It was unbelievable, the water rose so quickly,” said resident Tiziano Collarin, 59, as he surveyed the damage.
“Windows were blown out. There are those who have lost everything,” he said as the flood alarm rang out to warn those in the canal city that the tide, which had receded somewhat overnight, was coming in again.
The fire brigade said it had carried out over 250 operations and laid on extra boats as water ambulances.
A 78-year old was killed by electric shock as the waters poured into his home, Italian media reported.
President of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said 80% of the city had been submerged, causing “unimaginable damage”.
German tourist Gabi Brueckner, 58, said the nighttime drama had been “horrifying”.
She echoed the mayor in blaming climate change and said she feared, like many people, that “it will get worse and at some point Venice will drown”.
A massive infrastructure project called Mose has been underway since 2003 to protect the city, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.
The plan involves 78 gates that can be raised to protect Venice’s lagoon during high tides, but a recent attempt to test part of the barrier caused worrying vibrations and engineers discovered that parts had rusted.
“They’ve done nothing, neglected it. It doesn’t work and they have stolen €6bil (RM27.3bil). The politicians should all be put in jail,” said local Dino Perzolla, 62.
St Mark’s Square in one of the lowest parts of the city was particularly affected, its vestibule inundated with water.
“It was apocalyptic, enough to give you goosebumps,” said Marina Vector, as she and her husband used buckets to scoop water out of their shop selling Venetian festival masks.
“The storm was so bad that it broke the marble flood barrier out front. Nothing’s survived.”