Venice St Mark's had 3mn in flood damage

(ANSA) - Venice, December 13 - Exceptional high water levels in November caused over three million euros in damage to Venice's famous St Mark's Basilica. Another 841,000 euros of damage was caused by strong winds on November 12. Carlo Alberto Tesserin, who oversees the team responsible for the church's management, said that "I am not as concerned with the extra years of life that the Basilica may lose due to incidents like this, which will surely be repeated, as I am by the fact that, in a Basilica that is over 900 years old, we are now in a situation in which we must make up for the years wasted after (floods in) 1966." A plan is being assessed to protect the Basilica from further damage of this sort.