Venice yesterday braced itself for more rising waters as the Italian government prepared to take emergency measures for the canal city struck by an exceptional tide this week.
Venetians awoke to sirens indicating that the high waters were expected to exceed 130cm, enough to bring the salty dirty water back into the UNESCO city’s historic center.
The highest tide in 50 years on Tuesday ripped through the historic city, peaking at 1.87m.
Photo: Reuters
As authorities yesterday prepared to assess the extent of the damage to the city’s cultural treasures, such as St Mark’s Basilica, where water had invaded the crypt for only the second time in its history, locals remained defiant.
“It’s my living, what can I do?” Stefano Gabbanoto, 54, replied when asked why he was opening his newspaper kiosk knowing he would have to soon close.
Under the arches of the Ducal Palace, a couple from Hong Kong posed for photographs in the chilly morning sun.
“This was planned a long time ago so we couldn’t change it,” groom Jay Wong, 34, said.
His bride, Sabrina Lee, “looks cold,” he said.
“Actually this is a good experience,” Wong said. “It’s an adventure.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was set to meet Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and emergency responders before visiting businesses affected by the tide.
Conte on Wednesday called the flooding “a blow to the heart of our country,” with the government expected to declare a state of emergency.
A state of emergency declaration allows the government to use “exceptional powers and means” to intervene more quickly, and Conte said his government was ready to allocate funds.
Brugnaro has estimated the damage to the city at hundreds of millions of dollars.
“We are not just talking about calculating the damages, but of the very future of the city,” Brugnaro told reporters.
He described “untold damages, to houses, shops, activities, not to mention monuments and works of art. We risked our lives as well.”
Tuesday’s acqua alta (high waters) submerged about 80 percent of the city, officials said.
Only once since records began in 1923 has the water crept even higher, reaching 1.94m in 1966.
A 78-year-old was killed on Tuesday by an electric shock inside his home.
Venice is home to a mere 50,000 residents, but receives 36 million visitors each year.
A massive infrastructure project, MOSE, has been under way since 2003 to protect the city, but it has been plagued by cost overruns, corruption scandals and delays.
“This engineering solution that will end up costing nearly 6 billion euros has got to work,” Italian Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Paola de Micheli said on Radio Capital.
Additional reporting by AP
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