Floods Hit Italy’s Siracusa As Heavy Rainfall Continues across Sicily (+Video)
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Italian emergency services continued working hard on the aftermath of floods in Sicily, as the island was battered by torrential rainfall.
Footage filmed by the Vigili del Fuoco firefighters service in Siracusa region shows the Sunday operations, including the removal of a private vehicle taken away by the flood stream.
The state emergency service reported at least 40 interventions on Sunday alone.
The landfall of the 'Apollo' storm claimed at least three lives in Sicilian province of Siracusa and caused major damages.
Sicily braced for the arrival of a cyclone Thursday, the second this week after a deadly storm hammered the southern Italian island, killing three people.
The Mediterranean cyclone known as a “medicane” was set to reach Sicily’s eastern coast and the tip of mainland Calabria between Thursday evening and Friday morning, Italian public research institute ISPRA said.
The civil protection unit placed eastern Sicily under an orange alert in anticipation of the storm's arrival.
Schools were closed in Syracuse and Catania, where the local government ordered public offices and courts closed through Friday.
The Coldiretti agricultural lobby cited extensive damage to Sicilian citrus groves and olive trees, and estimated that the damage to crops and infrastructure caused by extreme weather events had already cost farmers across Italy two billion euros ($2.3 billion) this year, AFP reported.