A group representing the families of the 43 victims of the August 2018 Morandi-bridge disaster in Genoa demanded action on Monday after another viaduct collapsed on Sunday, fuelling concerns about the safety of the nation's highway infrastructure. A section of the A6 highway in Liguria caved in because of a landslide amid storms in the northwestern region.
No vehicles were on it at the time.
What's more, a sinkhole opened on the A21 highway in Piedmont. "It was only thanks to pure chance and immense luck that more innocent people did not die and other families were not plunged into pain," said Egle Possetti, the president of the committee devoted to the memory of the victims of the Morandi disaster.
"We want a serious commitment from our government and from parliament so that our country is made safe and every trip does not become a game of Russian roulette. "It was like going back 15 months for us yesterday".
The River Ticino burst its banks in the northern city of Pavia overnight as a wave of storms that has claimed one life continued to batter Italy on Monday. As a result of the flooding in Pavia, officials helped a number of local people evacuate their homes. In the province of Alessandria, rescue workers recovered the body of a 52-year-old woman who was swept away by flood waters while on her way to work on Sunday. In the same province 200 people are temporarily unable to access their homes because of the extreme weather while another 160 people are in areas that have been cut off. Emilia-Romagna was on red alert for extreme weather on Monday while the majority of Italy's other regions were on less severe forms of alarm. Piedmont Governor Alberto Cirio said his government will ask for a state of calamity and a state of emergency. "We have at least 130 roads closed, a region completely blocked, over 550 displaced and another 600 people cut off, and unfortunately, we have a victim, in addition to the two from a month ago," Cirio said. On the island of Sardinia, trains are stopped due to the Rio Calamasciu breaking its banks just outside Sassari. In Ospedaletti, near Imperia in the region of Liguria, students were evacuated from a school Monday morning due to a landslide that involved the school building. Italian farmers' group Coldiretti said there have been 14 billion euros of economic damage due to severe weather over 10 years. Premier Giuseppe Conte said Monday that the government has allocated 11 billion euros to investments designed to shore up Italy's regions against the threat of extreme-weather events. "11 billion euros have been set aside on a multi-annual basis," Conte said during a visit to the FCA plant in Melfi. "Now we have to spend this money and accelerate with all the work and work sites needed"
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