Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was expected yesterday to visit Sicily, where there were fears the death toll from torrential rains could rise to 50 as search and rescue efforts resumed.
“There are some 20 dead and 30 missing but at the end there will be at least 50 deaths,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying late on Friday by the Italian news agency ANSA.
Some 250mm of rain fell on northeastern Sicily in the space of a few hours on Thursday, triggering mudslides that collapsed two buildings, carried off cars and cut off roads throughout the region.
Berlusconi said he didn’t want to get in the way of search and rescue efforts, but “I’ll probably go tomorrow [today] to see and talk with people.”
Rescue workers and sniffer dogs searched on Friday for survivors in the rubble of the two buildings and in numerous communities in the Messina region cut off by mudslides, but searches were halted overnight because of dangers to rescuers.
At least 17 people died and 35 were missing, Sicily emergency services spokesman Giampiero Gliubizzi told said on Friday.
“Most of the dead and seriously injured were in two buildings that collapsed in mudslides,” Gliubizzi said, adding that several hundred people suffered some form of injury.
Some 60 people were ferried to area hospitals aboard dinghies because the roads were impassable, while those with serious injuries were evacuated by helicopter.
At least 10 were seriously injured and some 415 people were homeless, officials said.
Mudslides included one that stretched over 3.5km, cutting off communications and sweeping away dozens of cars between Messina and several coastal towns south of the city in the northeast of the island.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the region.
Messina city officials said they feared a heavier toll as some parts of the southern island remained inaccessible.
“We are working to make sure we get to all the villages including the ones that are cut off,” said Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italy’s civil protection service, in televised remarks.
He said rescue workers responded quickly to the disaster, deploying the first dinghy at around 2am on Friday.
Witnesses said that in some towns such as Molino, south of Messina, the mud was up to 7m deep.
“Two floors of my building collapsed and completely disappeared,” a shocked survivor who lived on the third floor said. “Everything happened very quickly.”
“I didn’t understand what was happening. I was at home and everything started moving. Then I found myself surrounded by rubble,” another survivor said.
Bertolaso arrived earlier on Friday in the mainland city of Reggio Calabria which is separated from Messina by a narrow strait.
The Sicilian capital Palermo in the northwest was also affected, with motorists stranded in their cars and a hospital’s emergency services flooded.
The road south to Catania was cleared in both directions by the end of the morning.
Several local officials said the disaster was predictable, citing inadequate storm drainage systems.
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