Tuscany has been particularly badly hit by the storms and flooding over the last few days. Roughly 5,000 people in the Tuscan town of Campi Bisenzio are still isolated by flood waters.
The Mayor of Campi Bisenzio, Andrea Tagliaferri, said on Saturday dinghies and amphibious vehicles are needed to provide people isolated in the town with food and other supplies.
“The waters are receding, but in the municipality there are still 5,000 people in the flooded area who need to be reached with food and supplies,” said Tagliaferri. “Amphibians and rubber dinghies are needed,” he added.
“They are without electricity and even the batteries of their mobile phones have run out,” said Tagliaferri.
The affected population is concentrated in an area that goes from the outskirts of the historical centre to the hamlet of San Piero a Ponti, the lowest area above sea level.
Precautionary evacuations in Tuscan municipalities
Some homes in the Tuscan municipalities of Montale, Montemurlo and Prato are to be evacuated in the coming hours as a precautionary measure in view of further heavy rainfall, Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani said on Saturday afternoon.
The affected homes are in the areas near where the rivers Agna and Bagnolo have broken their banks, he added.
Separately, Prato city council said that 180 elderly and disabled people would be evacuated from their homes as a precautionary measure amid concerns about the water level in the River Calice. The evacuees will be accommodated in a local sports centre.
Earlier, the civil protection chief Fabrizio Curcio said some areas would be subject to preventive evacuation with the agreement of local mayors. Another storm front is working its way down the country.
“We are trying to provide solutions with respect to the possibilities, there is the issue of the weather that is expected to get worse even today, so from the afternoon until tonight the conditions will worsen,” said Curcio on the sidelines of a press conference to take stock of the damage caused by the extreme weather in Tuscany.
“It will probably be necessary – the mayors will decide – for preventive evacuations of the affected area,” he continued.
Seven people are known to have died and one person is still missing after Storm Ciarán caused heavy flooding in many parts of the central-northern region on Thursday.
