It happened again:this time the flood hit the Catania area

A strong flood has hit the Catania area:in a few hours an amount of rain equal to 80 percent of the annual average.

• As many as 511 millimeters of rain fell in the Catania area, in particular in Giarre, in just a few hours:no victims but much damage to infrastructure.
• Hundreds of rescuers in action, a stretch of highway and many schools closed.
• The alarm of the Sicilian municipalities and the basin authorities:“The hydraulic system is no longer able to withstand these climatic events.”

Months and months of drought.Then, suddenly, the flood.This time it happened in Sicily, in the Catania area, where yesterday a violent storm transformed the streets into real rivers of water and mud:rainfall reached record levels, with 511 mm of rain recorded in Giarre in just 12 hours.But the situation has been and remains particularly critical in the municipalities of Torre Archirafi, Riposto, Acireale and Aci Sant'Antonio.Firefighters, but also men from the Civil Protection and simple volunteers, took part in hundreds of interventions, especially to rescue motorists stuck in their cars and people trapped in flooded homes.In particular, in Riposto, a torrent overflowed, invading the ground floor of a house and dragging some cars into the sea.Fortunately, there were no casualties, but two people with disabilities had a tough time and were saved in an emergency operation.

Cars at sea, landslides and flooded roads:the damage in the Catania area

The flood caused serious inconvenience to the population, with roads flooded and infrastructure damaged.In particular, the Messina-Catania motorway was interrupted between Giarre and Fiumefreddo, and many schools were closed for safety reasons.The provincial road to Riposto was also blocked due to a landslide.The head of the department Sicilian Civil Protection, Salvo Cocina, visited the most affected areas to coordinate further interventions, while the Sicily region requested a state of emergency to ensure maximum urgency in the supply of means and resources.

Yet another flood hitting an Italian territory (and the still alive thought of what happened in Valencia) highlights, however, once again the need to go beyond emergency management.THE'Anci Sicily, which brings together all the municipalities of the island, today underlines that the current hydraulic system "is no longer able to withstand adverse climatic conditions" and has asked for urgent interventions to address the problems linked to hydrogeological risk.Only a few days ago the government recalled how with the Hydrogeological risk mitigation plan have been allocated 1,084 million euros to be allocated to the Regions and autonomous Provinces.

Between mitigation and adaptation 

In addition to mitigation, however, adaptation is necessary: the National Association of consortia for the management and protection of land and irrigation water (Anbi) invited the European Union to make a great common effort to counter the consequences of extreme meteorological events. “This time there was no dramatic surprise effect, limiting the consequences to material damage, but the Dana phenomenon was repeated both in Spain that on Italy, thanks to a Mediterranean basin with ttemperatures more than 3 degrees above average and a sea, which oscillates between 22° and 24° south of Sicily - underlines the Anbi - This condition favors the occurrence of those extreme events, caused by the meeting/clash between hot and cold currents, already the cause of emergencies , which have repeatedly hit the peninsula and devastated the Valencian province in this turbulent autumn of 2024."

Suffice it to say that the 511 millimeters of rain that fell corresponds to approximately 80 percent of the annual rainfall accumulations in the province of Catania.Help, according to Anbi, can come from technology.“The availability of big data and artificial intelligence are crucial for predictive science, which is fundamental for adapting to new climate scenarios”, indicates the president, Francesco Vincenzi:“For this reason we appeal to the European Union for a great common effort, aimed at countering the consequences of the extremes of weather events, which is uniting the continent”.