Stormy weather, high level alert in Tuscany

FLORENCE, ITALY – People were evacuated as a pre-emptive measure due to bad weather on the board between Liguria and Tuscany.

Sixty-five people left Borghetto Vara, the town devastated by floods In October 2011. This was the fourth time locals were forced to sleep elsewhere with friends, relatives, or in Green Cross shelters. A level 2 Alert will be enforced tomorrow at noon.

The Civil Protection are monitoring the entire La Spezia district.& 13; Many schools have closed in several local towns and scheduled events have been canceled. The Magra River is being monitored. A number of families have been evacuated in the Fiumaretta area, where flooding is expected, some families have been evacauted. Access to schools and sports facilities has been restricted in La Spezia, too.

The situation remains critical across Italy’s Massa Carrara province, where heavy rains caused landslides, landslips, and flooding overnight. Some streets are flooded to the point where they have turned into streams.

Some 130 millimeters of rain fell in the space of a few hours, and a total of 250 millimeters fell between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. The situation is also critical in La Spezia, where some 100 people were evacuated as a precaution, in light of the level 2 weather alert. Trees fell in Genoa. (Agi)