The damage count begins: in addition to those, huge, material in Sestri Levante, the Municipality most affected by this disturbance that struck Liguria, especially the Gulf of Tigullio, are recorded in Cogorno, in the immediate hinterland of Chiavari first displaced, about ten, due to the damage suffered by the house in which they reside. Two women, between Chiavari and Lavagna, in the first morning were rescued by the 118, hit by hail, were treated in the emergency room of Lavagna, in yellow code, for bruises.
The phenomena, especially the gusts of wind, are also affecting the La Spezia area, in Ortonovo, near Luni (La Spezia), roofless houses, electricity and water blackouts are reported, the tiles are scattered throughout the streets of the village. The telephone lines are down. In Sarzana a violent storm caused trees and pylons to fall with damage to cars and buildings. The coastal road has been closed in Marinella. The mayor of Sarzana, Cristina Ponzanelli, launched an appeal on social media: “If possible, do not go out, do not look out the windows and do not stand under the trees”. Damage also to the bathing establishments of the Gulf of La Spezia.
In Sestri Levante there were two tornadoes in less than three hours. The disturbance persisted all morning on Sestri Levanteabove all it is the wind that worries the entire gulf of Tigullio, however, full of tourists who have also filled the campsites. From the mayor of Sestri Levante, Valentina Ghio, the appeal was issued not to leave the house, to stay sheltered in shops or in their homes, until the alert has ceased: “The situation is serious – says Ghio – we are about to ask for a state of calamity, for the exceptional extent of the damage, serious to the bathing establishments and to the houses of the promenade with glass broken by hail, vehicles hit, trees felled “. The hail has riddled the buildings, devastating the plaster, the shutters, the shutters of the shops, leaving a ghostly landscape. The cars suffered extensive damage to the bodies. In the streets the operations were underway to remove plants uprooted by the wind, rubble, gutters torn from the buildings and carcasses of scooters, raised and thrown to the ground by the wind, but now another wind alarm is stopping everything. Obviously, the teams of technicians of the municipality and the firefighters are at work throughout the area.
The railway circulation continues to remain suspended in Liguria due to the damage reported to the route between the stations of Chiavari e Sestri Levante (Genoa – La Spezia line), due to the tornado that threw various material, including some bathing huts, on the line that runs right next to the beaches, damaging the electricity supply. RFI announces that the technicians are working to restore the line as soon as possible, while some replacement buses have entered service to take charge of the passengers, the RFI staff provides assistance to travelers. On the tracks there are also umbrellas, tarpaulins, deckchairs from the Ziki Paki a baths Blackboard cables, devastated by the wind and the sea. TO Blackboardshortly after dawn, a whirlwind hit. And a very violent hail storm lashed the entire Gulf of Tigullio in the same hours, with damage to shutters, car bodies and the first damage to crops began to be reported, with entire olive harvests destroyed.
The damage to the Cavi station, where the concrete wall was broken down and the gate bent by the force of the wind, testifies to the power of the tornado that hit the Tigullio. And they are structures that are not ephemeral at all, as instead those of the bathing establishments can be, which instead report considerable damage throughout the Tigullio.
According to some witnesses, damage was recorded, due to the effect of hail, with grains the size of large walnuts to the historic building of the Municipality of Blackboard.
Some damages are also beginning to be reported in the Spezzinowhere the hail broke windows of cars, houses, and devastated various crops.
The Civil Protection of the Liguria Region makes it known that “in the Ligurian Levant, between 7 and 8 in the morning, 20 millimeters of rain were recorded in 5 minutes”. The President of the Region, Giovanni Toti, invites the population to be extremely cautious: “Fortunately, at the moment no person is injured. In the last few hours, heavy rains and hailstorms have fallen on most of Liguria. The weather alert is still in progress, especially in the Ligurian Levant “.
There were also inconveniences for over two hours on the A12 motorway, with a tail of 2 km between Rapallo and Lavagna, due to the fall of shrubs on the roadways, blown up by the wind from the surrounding hills. There was no damage to people or cars. However, the situation normalized from 8.30. There are also problems on the Aurelia, between Cavi and Sestri Levante, due to downed trees on the roadway, also in this case no people or vehicles were involved.
Forecasts
Today, the weather in Liguria it is super-monitored for the evolution of the yellow alert that Arpal has issued, for thunderstorms, over the whole region, from midnight to (for now) at 15.