Venice flooding: Italy set to declare state of emergency in ancient city

1/70
Tim Baker14 November 2019

A state of emergency is expected to be declared in Venice following “apocalyptic” flooding in the city.

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said on Twitter that the raised water levels - which have damaged historic sites throughout the canal city - were “the result of climate change”.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte is expected to declare extra emergency powers to help the city after saying the government will act quickly to provide funds and resources.

The northern Italian city is famous for being in a lagoon and using canals instead of roads, but in recent days massive tidal changes have wreaked havoc.

City thoroughfares were turned into raging torrents. Meanwhile, stone balustrades were shattered, boats tossed ashore and gondolas smashed against their moorings as the lagoon tide peaked at 187cm.

It was the highest since the record 194cm set in 1966, but rising water levels are becoming a regular threat to the tourist attraction.

"Venice is on its knees," added Mr Brugnaro. "The damage will run into hundreds of millions of euros."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT