Venice's MOSE flood-barrier system was
lifted to protect the city on Wednesday after a miscalculation
meant it was not raised in time to prevent flooding on Tuesday.
The system was not activated on Tuesday as the 'acqua alta' tide
peak was not forecast to be as bad as it turned out to be.
MOSE takes some time to be activated and, by the time the
authorities realised their forecasts were off the mark on
Tuesday, it was too late.
Cinzia Zincone, the head of the public works department in the
area, told ANSA on Wednesday that "we are trying to calibrate
the opening and closing (of MOSE) in the best way".
She said a meeting would be held later on Wednesday to "analyse
what happened yesterday and, if necessary, make significant
changes to the procedures applied up to now for MOSE".
After some corruption scandals and many years of work and
delays, the system finally came into use this year.
It was not ready in time to stop the floods that devastated the
city in 2019.
Zincone said the flood barriers would stay up for three days
with more high tides forecast up until Friday.
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