Floods in Florence, Italy

Storm in Florence: 20 injured, you count the damage. Leave the train after the night of chaos

Restored in the night the train: the odyssey of travellers who are prisoners of the stations and trains were blocked suddenly. In the city, roofless roofs and fallen trees. Twenty of the injured, to severe, a nineteen-year-old

Nubifragio a Firenze: 20 feriti, si contano i danni. Ripartono i treni dopo la notte di caos

Il Terreno,

1 August, 2015

Via Yandex Translation

FLORENCE. You count the damage of the storm that struck on the afternoon of Saturday the 1st of August in Florence. Flooding and fallen trees have engaged several teams of the fire brigade and reinforcements have arrived from Prato and Pistoia, to meet the requests of intervention: at the end you will count 235 interventions in a few hours, but hundreds of interventions are still to be done. 

According to an estimate of the weather of the Town, have fallen 35 mm of water in just 45 minutes. In the two hours have fallen 58 mm, the same amount that on average it rains in a month.

The storm also caused damage to the railway line between the stations of the Field of Mars and Rovezzano by blocking the links Florence-Rome, breaking the Italy half hours. Fourteen convoys were stranded in Florence; the different trains that they had to go back to Rome and Milan. Hundreds of passengers in difficulty.

Particularly affected the area south of the city. Vehicle traffic has gone haywire in virtually the entire city. Some of the streets have been invaded by the water. The manholes are skipped even in the historic centre. Light and phones are temporarily left out of use. The mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella , has interrupted the holidays in London and took the first flight useful to return to the city. Nardella has already convened a council extraordinary to 18.30 on Sunday. 

The crisis unit, in a first time meeting convened for 15: 30, was delayed for two hours.

A state of emergency. Nardella on Twitter says that it will ask for the Region, the State of emergency. The president Enrico Rossi has announced that he will sign today. Among the hypotheses examined the possibility of using the refugees hosted in Toscana for the first cleaning and restoration, using the convention also enabled with Inail insurance for works of public utility. Technical municipal and regional authorities are examining the feasibility.

Roof roofless, flooding and fallen trees on houses. Some roof unroofed, trees fallen on buildings, a rush of electricity: these are some of the damage caused by the storm, characterized by a strong wind from the west, which swept the area south of Florence, between the areas of the Group and Gavinana. In viale Giannotti an estimated half a metre of water. Flooded via Villamagna. In the palaces is scarce or lacking drinking water, even if the engineers of the Aqueduct are already at work to restore the supply. The Group, the wind, taking the roofs of the houses. In the city, the storm ripped through the verandas, awnings, balconies. Broken window panes of several houses. In tilt city traffic, even with road accidents. Many cars were stopped by the drivers in the proximity of the roads flooded. Trees have fallen on cars, in the whole of the affected area are skipped alarms. In addition to the building evacuated in viale Giannotti, the inhabitants of another palace in via del Gignoro, completely unroofed, have been made to move away from their homes.

The people climbed on the parked cars. In the area of Gavinana, one of the hardest hit by the violent storm tonight, the people climbed on parked cars, walls and even garbage bins, garbage, to escape the strong current of the water in the streets flooded. The water level exceeded the height of one metre. Invaded the cellars, stores, funds, and basements. Several calls arrive at the central of the 118 of Florence and two hours is trying to manage the situation.Some of the injured is reported by the fire department. Locked the viale Michelangiolo to allow the fire brigade to remove it with chain saws, branches, tree trunks, and fallen trees. In addition to flooding in the capital, under the water, even the suburbs of Tavarnuzze and Ponte a Ema. In Galluzzo was closed the main road to Volterra for the fall of a wall

Stuck for 7 hours, the rail on the Florence-Rome line. Blocked all of the sudden the rail links between Rome and Florence. All the trains in transit and they had to stop due to the rupture of a metal beam to support the power line aerial: a roof crashed on the joint electric after being detached by a whirlwind, between the stations of the Field of Mars and Rovezzano. Came into the game with the crisis unit of the ministry of Railways. It happened at around 19.30. The links were restored on the historical line, alternating one-way at 3 in the morning: all trains have then been able to resume their race to the final destination in or out, as planned, in Rome and Milan. The movement of the trains along the backbone of the Florence-Rome is back to normal. At 5 and 5.45 and the technical Rfi have also re-enabled the two tracks of the line direttissima Roma-Firenze. At 6,54 was also re-enabled the second track of the historical line.

In thousands on the train back to Rome. About 1,500 passengers of more than 3,000 blocked the trains which travel between Florence and Rome has been broken have been reported to the Capital. The other thousand were aboard trains which have been diverted along the tyrrhenian line to Rome. Pisa is provided for a place of service of civil protection. Other trains are relegated to Milan.

The night in the train stations. Hundreds of passengers spent the night in Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The majority of those who have arrived at the station has found a place in the hotel or the way you travel with other means, but many are equipped to spend the night in the station, perhaps in the hope of being able to start as soon as possible to their destinations.

Assistance to passengers. Ambulances and other means of civil protection have been made to converge towards some of the trains latches on the rails in Florence because of the blocking of the railway to Rome. Reason of the intervention, to ensure comfort to passengers and to give medical assistance and health care in case of need. "We have done our best to avoid the worst, by providing support to the board and in the stations have been distributed 1500 bottles of water, 700 tablets of chocolate and dozens of people have been helped to find hotels in the vicinity of the stations. We were able to make the block in the circulation does not last for too long," he writes to the Fs in a note. The consequences have been contained with two cancellations for the Frecciarossa and four Regional. "The traffic has been restored, given the damage, in a record time".

And water damage to the Offices and museum of the Bargello. The staff of the florentine museums are experiencing any damage to the artistic heritage. According to the results so far, there has been only one infiltration of rainwater in the exhibition hall: it happened in the Chapel of the Podestà of the Museum of the Bargello, where the water is filtered from the ceiling. Are not, however, damaged the frescoes, but only the particular stalls in wood that adorn the chapel. In the Uffizi, according to what is learned, there was a little flooding of a local technician to rainwater entering from a window on the upper floor of the building. The water is then output to the down by the Staircase Magliabechiano. The visitors present were diverted to another output path.

Serious damage to the system of the Anconella and the aqueduct of the city. "The weather events have created serious damage to the drinking water purification plant of the Anconella. Our engineers have re-enabled the production of water already in the evening and in the houses of the town of Florence, left temporarily without water, the water supply is returning gradually to normal". Notify the management company of the aqueduct of Florence, Publiacqua. "The damage to the most important system of the purification of our territory (Anconella, ndr) will be assessed fully in the next few days but surely the Anconella is able to return to operational mode only emergency, and then not at full regime," the note continues. "This adds Publiacqua - will lead to a reduction in additions to the Plain and to the Chianti, and then the possible lowering of pressure and lack of water this evening and also on Sunday the 2nd of August to the Lawn and also in the Municipalities of the Chianti area directly interconnected to the so-called Highway of the waters".

A million damage to plant and buildings of Publiacqua. By midnight are back at full speed, the water pumps at the plant of the Anconella - the root of the aqueduct of Florence - and the water is provided in all areas of the city and the nearby municipalities in connected. However, Publiacqua, the management company, has extensive damage: the fall of the trees has damaged the 'heart' of the system falling on the roof of the Central Thrust where the staff has reactivated immediately the functionality repairing with tarps temporary electrical panels exposed to rain. The Central one of the focal points of the Anconella.Also damaged the Building Marcucci where you will find some of the offices of the company. In addition, a tree has hit the general counter of the gas to the plant and damage have also occurred to the roof of the new hall of the 'remote control' finished recently, in mid-July. Publiacqua estimate damage for 1 million euro.

Three buildings roofless. Meanwhile, rose to three buildings, with the roof completely collapsed. The storm caused the collapse of the roof of a building in via Cardinal Latino, the area of Gavinana, one of the neighborhoods affected by the bad weather. Evacuated all the tenants, this morning, Sunday, August 2, after the verification of the fire brigade.

Yesterday evening they had been removed from their homes, for the collapse of the roof, the inhabitants of two other buildings, in viale Giannotti, and in the way of the Gignoro. In total, the firemen are so far occurred in 26 stable where the strong wind has unroofed, or caused the failure, total or partial, to the rooftops.