A 58-year-old man is missing, feared
dead, after the tractor he was using was swept away on Thursday
by flash floods at Feletto, near Turin, after a wave of violent
storms and torrential rain battered northern Italy, hitting
Piedmont and Lombardy especially hard.
A wheel of the vehicle was visible at the time of writing,
overturned in muddy water, after a river burst its banks.
Firefighters have been at work since dawn on Thursday in the
city of Turin and in areas of Val di Susa and Val Chisone, at
700 metres of altitude, after the Gerdardo river overflowed and
a bridge collapsed.
According to preliminary information, 20 people remained
isolated in the area while 30 others were cut off in the little
town of Santa Petronilla near Bussoleno when another river
overflowed, flooding the 24 provincial road.
Violent storms in Val Chisone flooded more provincial roads in
Perosa Argentina and Villar Perosa.
There was also widespread flooding in the Milan area, with the
Seveso, Olona and Lambro rivers overflowing.
Services on the city's M2 metro line between Famagosta and
Assago had to be suspended as a result and, for the first time
since it was founded in 1976, the Radio Popolare station stopped
broadcasting because its transmission centre was inundated with
water..
Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas
emissions is making extreme weather events such as heatwaves,
droughts, supercharged storms and flooding more frequent and
more intense.
Southern Italy is current suffering a severe drought, which is
causing massive problems, especially in Sicily and Sardinia.
Although there are many sources of the greenhouse gases that are
causing global heating, the main driver is the burning of fossil
fuels such as oil, gas and coal, sales of which generate huge
profits for the world's energy giants.
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