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Houses teetering on the edge of a cliff in the town of Nishemi, Sicily Italy’s civil protection chief said on Tuesday that the storm had triggered landslides.
Nisemi, a town of about 25,000 people in south-central Sicily, sits on a plateau that authorities say is gradually collapsing into the plains below. More than 1,500 people had to be evacuated.
Buildings are hanging over the edge after much of the slope collapsed. The front end of a car stuck into the crack.
“Let us be clear: some houses on the edge of the landslide are uninhabitable,” civil protection chief Fabio Ciciliano told reporters in Nisemi. He said residents in the affected areas would be permanently relocated.
“A more accurate assessment will be made once the water drains and the moving parts stop or slow down… the landslide is still active,” he added.
On Monday, Italy’s government, led by Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, declared a state of emergency in Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria, three southern regions hit by violent storms last week.
Extreme weather events have become more frequently in Italy in recent years. Flooding has devastated cities across the country, killed dozens of people and heightened the risk of landslides and floods in areas that have historically been less at risk.
Severe cases weather Bringing relentless rain, strong winds and waves up to 9 meters (30 feet) high sicilySardinia and Calabria for two days, pushing water inland and overwhelming coastal defenses.
The government has set aside 100 million euros ($119 million) to meet initial needs in areas hardest hit by recent storms.
sicily Local authorities said last week that the island alone had suffered damage worth about 740 million euros, but the island’s governor, Renato Schifani, warned on Monday that the final amount could be twice that.
But local authorities estimate that powerful winds and waves pushed seawater inland, overwhelming coastal defenses and destroying homes and businesses, causing damage of more than 1 billion euros.
In Nishemi, the sudden evacuation heightened anxiety and anger among residents, some of whom said earlier landslides had not been addressed.
“I was told I had to leave, even though nothing (collapsed) in or under my house,” Francisco Zarba said.
“We had our first landslide 30 years ago and no one did anything.”