A stormy weekend in Italy. Photo: Shutterstock The extreme weather wave that hit Italy last Friday, August 21, gave way this morning to a full return to normalcy across the country.
The storm brought massive floods and mudslides to towns in the Lombardy region in the north, along with an unusual windstorm in the Tuscany region that caused trees to fall and blocked roads.
Emergency centers in Florence alone recorded a record 163 calls to the civil defense system and 512 calls to the local police, which led to the immediate mobilization of hundreds of police officers and volunteer teams to evacuate the victims, while the president of the Lombardy region appealed to the government in Rome with an urgent request to declare a provincial state of emergency in order to allocate reconstruction funds.
Despite the severity of the events over the weekend, the actions of local authorities and the National Roads Company bore fruit, and the morning opened under optimistic conditions and without long-term disruptions for citizens.
The official national report from the Civil Protection Department stated that as of today, August 24, no significant weather phenomena are expected in any region of Italy and the risk maps have been repainted green, heralding calm.
Engineering teams have cleared the main roads, and vehicle and public transportation traffic is flowing normally this morning; the main remaining impact is now purely bureaucratic, with government officials in Rome busy with the final damage assessment and preparing reports for approval of emergency budgets.