Italy declares state of emergency after landslide on island of Ischia
Casamicciola Terme, Italy - Italy’s government declared a state of emergency on Sunday after a landslide on the southern island of Ischia killed at least one person and left a dozen missing.
A wave of mud and debris hit the small town of Casamicciola Terme early on Saturday morning, engulfing at least one house and sweeping cars down to the sea, local media and emergency services said.
A first tranche of two million euros relief funds was released at the end of an emergency cabinet meeting which declared the state of emergency, said Minister for Civil Protection Nello Musumeci.
More than 200 rescuers are still searching for a dozen missing people, while hundreds of volunteers, and others, up to their knees in mud, are busy cleaning the streets of the town.
Wreckage of cars and buses crushed by the mudslide could be seen and boulders were scattered around as excavators
sought to free up access to homes, cars and shops.
Rescuers had recovered the body of a 31-year-old woman, according to Italian news agency AGI.
“It’s a situation that hurts us, if only for the people who disappeared under the mountain. Here it’s an island and even if we don’t
really know everyone, it’s almost that,” Salvatore Lorini, 45, told AFP.
“The mountain came down, there was devastation of shops, cars, hotels and that was already happening nine years ago. Now I am cleaning my mother-in-law’s shop,” he said.
The landslide was caused by a
lack of maintenance and prevention ‘because nature is nature, there was an earthquake, but a bit of prevention’ could have saved lives, said Lorini.
The peninsula, off Naples, is no stranger to states of emergency following earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or severe weather.
Casamicciola Terme, a spa resort of 8,000 inhabitants in winter on the lush island of Ischia, near Capri, was hit by an earthquake in 2017 that killed two people.
It was completely destroyed by a much more powerful earthquake at the end of the 19th century.
Complex rescue operation
Heavy rain sent torrents of mud through the streets of Casamicciola Terme, a settlement on the north of Ischia, a lush island near Capri that is thronged with tourists in summer.
Trees were upturned and cars left battered on the side of the road or in the water, according to AFP journalists.
The fire service said earlier one house had been overwhelmed by the mud and two people had been rescued from a car that had been swept into the sea.
In the worst-affected area of the town, at least 30 families were trapped in their homes without water or electricity, with mud and debris blocking the road, ANSA news agency reported.
Officials said they expected to evacuate and find temporary homes for between 150 and 200 people by Saturday evening.
“The rescue effort remains complex due to the weather conditions,” said the department for civil protection, but it stressed teams would keep working through the night.
Local authorities called on residents of Ischia to stay inside to avoid hindering the rescue operation. Casamicciola Terme was hit by an earthquake in 2017, in which two people died.
The devastation in Ischia comes just weeks after 11 people died in heavy rain and flooding in the central Italian region of Marche.