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Landslides in Calabria and Sicily

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Source: Catherine Deshayes

Torrential rain in the South has left the small town of Maierato, in Vibo Valentia Province, Calabria, "like a ghost town", Ansa reports. 300 residents were evacuated yesterday after a whole section of hillside broke off and came hurtling down onto the town and this morning the Mayor, Sergio Rizzo, took the decision to evacuate the rest of the town's 2,300 residents. They have been moved to a police college and various sports halls in the Province...

"We were looking at a small mudslide which had blocked off a street when all of a sudden, everything came down. I'll never forget it", said the Mayor.

Even buildings at the top of the hill are in danger of collapsing and the mud swept away whole streets and their water mains along with them, so Maierato now has no water supply.

Agazio Loiero, the President of the Calabria Region, has called for a massive, national public works programme to safeguard people from this kind of disaster. Referring to the Messina Bridge Project, he said that the region didn't need a bridge to Sicily but funding to protect its citizens from floods and mudslides.

One evacuated resident said that the problem is that no one works the land any more, so when it rains heavily disaster is inevitable.

Mudflows have cut off roads around the town of Catanzaro and it is estimated that there have been 200 landslides in Calabria since Sunday. The environmental protection organisation Legambiente says that the whole region is at risk and blames deforestation and poor urban planning.

In Sicily a landslide in the town of San Fratello, near Messina, has caused 1,500 people to be evacuated. The mudflow was nearly halted on Monday when the rain briefly stopped but fresh downpours on Tuesday allowed it to move again. An expert warns that if the hillside slides again, the whole western half of the town could be destroyed. The town's Renaissance church has already been damaged and residents have carried its fifteenth century crucifix to safety.

No injuries or deaths have been reported in either town. Last October at least 30 people were killed in floods and mudslides in the hamlet of Giampilieri Superiore and the town of Scaletta Zanclea, both near Messina.

Source: www.italymag.co.uk