The toll is dramatically increasing in Ischia, Italy. The government declared a state of emergency on Sunday for this island opposite Naples, hit the day before by a large landslide caused by heavy rains, the toll of which is revised upwards: the authorities first announced seven dead. Then, during a new communication, the balance sheet changed and is now eight dead.
Four people are still missing, according to the prefecture of Naples.
“It had already happened nine years ago”
On the spot on Sunday, more than 200 members of the civil protection and the police were still looking for the missing, while hundreds of volunteers, mud up to their knees, are busy cleaning the streets of the small town. . Remains of cars and buses crushed by the violence of the mudslide and rocks are visible everywhere, in a ballet of diggers trying to free up access to houses, cars and shops. “The mountain came down, there was a devastation of shops, cars, hotels, and it had already happened nine years ago. Now I am cleaning my mother-in-law’s store,” said Salvatore Lorini, 45, a resident of Ischia where he was born.
“I am close to the population of the island of Ischia affected by a flood. I pray for the victims, for those who suffer and for all those who intervened in the rescue,” Pope Francis said after the Angelus prayer.
Mass tourism pointed out
For Tommaso Moramarco, director of the Institute for Research and Hydrogeological Protection, quoted by the AGI agency, “in Ischia there is an urbanization that has hit and devastated the whole territory”. “When the island entered the period of mass tourism, the growth of infrastructure was exponential, suffocating all the natural elements of the territory and covering everything with cement”, added geologist Mario Tozzi in the pages of the daily. La Stamparecalling the existence of tens of thousands of illegal constructions in Ischia.
The state of emergency is often declared in the peninsula, following earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or severe weather. It provides for an accelerated procedure for mobilizing funds and resources, including those for civil protection, for urgent interventions or the setting up of reception structures.
Casamicciola Terme, a spa resort of 8,000 inhabitants in winter located on the lush island of Ischia, near Capri, suffered an earthquake in 2017 that killed two people. On the other hand, it had been completely destroyed by a much more powerful earthquake at the end of the 19th century.