THE RAIN AIN'T STOPPING IN GENOA

Today there was  a message on my cell. It is from the Comune di Genova informing all residents of the city that there is very heavy rain and a very real possibility of another major flooding.

I only need to look out of the window facing the street to know that it is true: there is already a small river flowing. Luckily the apartment we live in, is high above the street level but this is still worrying. There has been a thunder storm for couple of hours now.

People are being asked to stay inside and not to go outside unless absolutely necessary. No doubt a major traffic chaos will follow. We all knew that it was coming as the cell phone messages keep coming, Last week schools were closed for three days. If the situation has looked to be somewhat under control in the city centre of Genoa, it was far from it elsewhere in Liguria, for example in Santa Marghareta Liguria and Chiavari. And today there are already reports of rising water levels in other parts of Liguria too (www.ilsecoloxix.it)

This flower stand has been on the balcony and quickly filled in with water in couple of hours. 

It was only barely a month ago that the heavy rains caused major flooding in the city centre of Genoa. One person died, many had to abandon their homes and cars in great haste and millions of euro worth of damage was caused by flash floods. An army of volunteers,  quickly named as the "mud angels" started spontaneously arriving to the city centre to clean the mud, dirt and water. I was not here at that time, but the damage has been visible to this day, especially in the Brignole area, where many shop owners lost their stock and had to close down, temporarily or in some cases for good. Unfortunately insurance companies do not come to the rescue as flooding is not covered in most policies. Some businesses have tried to salvage what they could by selling flood damaged goods outside their premises. What has angered the residents of Genoa is that a similar devastating flood happened in 2011 and the city received emergency funding for essential infrastructure repairs. Very little has happened though because there was a dispute regarding the tender process of who should be awarded the contract and the money is still sitting somewhere three years later.