VENICE. The Mose protected Venice from a tide that on Monday evening would have flooded half the city, hit by torrential rain and gusts of wind that reached 70 kilometers per hour. However, the images taken last night at 11 pm, just when the Mose was activated, show San Marco and the Basilica covered largely with water. How is it possible? For the Centro Maree of the Municipality, the main cause are the many clogged manholes that prevented rainwater from draining. Houses and shops, on the other hand, remained dry and the anguish of facing a sudden emergency, as it has happened several times in the past, was averted.
There is a willingness on the part of the administration to lift the great work again this evening when the tide should reach 115 centimeters by 21.20. The Mose teams are in early warning, but the final decision that is up to the Superintendency of Public Works of the current Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility, will depend on the trend of the weather conditions of the day. On the other hand, it is certain that the Mose will go into operation for the exceptional high waters scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, unless the forecasts improve.
Delays that are costly
This morning it is sunny, but with an expected high water of 95 centimeters at 9, Piazza and Basilica again, the lowest points in all of Venice covered with only 85 centimeters of tide, will again be flooded enough to cause damage to the mosaics and marbles of the church, already severely corroded by the salt. The works currently underway to save the Basilica by protecting it with a belt of crystal glass that will defend it from the tides, began almost two years late and continue in slow motion precisely because we are in the height of high water season. Ready and just as late is the 30 million project, presented in February last year, to raise the entire San Marco island to 110 centimeters, the level at which the Mose should come into operation once it is definitively completed.
Warning levels
The predictions of scientists and insiders on Monday night’s tide were more accurate than those of mathematical models that had predicted a lower level. The 130 centimeters expected initially increased to 139 at the Lido inlet, 134 at Malamocco and Chioggia. In the lagoon the level stopped at 83 centimeters.
According to current forecasts, the 78 infrastructure gates, built and not yet completed to protect Venice from exceptional tides, will certainly be activated on the evening of November 3, when 140 centimeters of high water are expected at 10 pm, and on the morning of 4 since at 9.55 the tide is expected to reach 120 centimeters. A historic day that of November 4, the anniversary of the flood that hit Venice in 1966 with 197 centimeters of exceptional tide and Florence with the overflow of the Arno. From that moment on, Venice began to think of a solution that would protect the city from the danger of being devoured by the sea. The solution, still much discussed, took shape in the creation of what is now the Mose.
.