Rome -
Sixteen people have been killed and one person is missing, an Italian emergency official said on Tuesday, after Cyclone Cleopatra battered the Mediterranean island of Sardinia with torrential rains.
Civil Protection Agency head Franco Gabrielli said the biggest number of casualties - 13 - was in the north-eastern province of Olbia, home to over 150 000 people. There were two dead and one missing person in the Nuoro province, and one victim near Oristano.
“It is a really exceptional event,” Gabrielli told RAI state television. He noted that 50 centimetres of water had fallen on the affected areas within 24 hours, whereas the average rainfall was “less than one meter in a year.”
Hundreds of residents fled their homes late on Monday amid heavy flooding and gales of wind of up to 100 kilometres per hour. Fire crews performed over 600 rescue operations.
Bridge collapses killed several people, including a man, his wife and mother-in-law; a mother and her daughter were swept away by a torrent while riding in their car; and a Brazilian couple and their two children drowned as their basement flat was flooded.
“The situation is, unfortunately, really dramatic,” Sardinian President Ugo Cappellacci told RAI.
Transport in the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea was severely disrupted on Monday, as flights and ferries were cancelled, roads were closed and trains halted. Most services resumed on Tuesday, as the storm dissipated and rains stopped.
However, many schools were expected to remain closed, as meteorologists forecast more rainfall and authorities struggle to return power to parts of the island. - Sapa-dpa