Italy flood toll reaches five

(ANSA) - Rome, November 13 - Firefighters on Thursday recovered the body of a person found dead near a mill that had been flooded as a result of the wave of storms and torrential rain that has hit many parts of Italy this week. The body was found at Crema, near the northern city of Cremona, bringing the death toll of this week's extreme weather in Italy to five. On Wednesday a 70-year-old man drowned after falling into Lake Maggiore, which has overflowed due to torrential rains, while trying to secure a boat. Another man was killed in a landslide in the town of Crevacuore, near the city of Biella, in the northern Piedmont region. An elderly couple was killed Tuesday when a mudslide overran their home in Leivi near Genoa.
    Prosecutors have opened manslaughter probes into both the Crevacuore and Leivi deaths. Meanwhile weather conditions improved in the northwestern region of Piedmont which, together with its southern neighbour Liguria has borne the brunt of the recent bad weather. There, the level of Lake Orta had reportedly stopped rising, as had that of Lake Maggiore in the northern Lombardy region.
    In Milan the level of the Seveso fell a day after the river burst its banks, flooding roads and the city's Garibaldi station.
    However the level of the river Lambro, which also passes through the Lombard capital, remained high. Also on Thursday, towns and cities in the Emilia Romagna provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia were on alert as the Po reached flood level.
    As well, some 30 families living in the Piedmont village of Ribordone near Ivrea were isolated due to a landslide. Meteorologists said there would be a let-up in the bad weather throughout Italy on Friday followed by fresh heavy rainfall especially in Liguria, Piedmont, the Alps and Tuscany over the weekend.