Venice ‘on its knees’ after second-worst flood recorded
The worst flooding in Venice in more than 50 years has prompted calls to better protect the historic city from rising sea levels, while its mayor attributed the flooding to climate change and called for a state of emergency.
Officials calculated hundreds of millions of euros in damage was caused when water reached 1.87m above average sea level on Wednesday, the second-highest level ever recorded in the city and just 7cm lower than the historic 1966 flood. Another wave of exceptionally high water followed yesterday.
“Venice is on its knees,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said on Twitter. “St Mark’s Basilica has sustained serious damage, like the entire city and its islands.”
Venice has always lived with risk, given its location in a shallow lagoon. But it is increasingly imperiled. The sea level has been rising more rapidly in Venice than in other parts of the world.
At the same time, the city is sinking, the result of tectonic plates shifting below the Italian coast.
Climate scientists predict Venice will be entirely underwater by the end of this century.
Brugnaro indicated at a news conference the city’s future was at stake in how it responded to the flooding crisis.
“Venice is an emblem for the whole country,” he said. “We are no longer talking about a local problem, but a worldwide one. There were people who were crying today because they’ve lost everything, and we’re not talking about the poor. The point is that there is no longer certainty.”