F.Y.I. —

Climate Change Blamed As Floods Overwhelm Venice, Swamping Basilica and Squares

It’s bad, with “apocalyptic” floods sweeping through the lagoon city, flooding its historic basilica and inundating squares andcenturies-old buildings.

Thoroughfares were turned into raging torrents, stone balustrades were shattered, boats tossed ashore and gondolas smashed against their moorings as the lagoon tide peaked at 187 cm (6ft 2ins) shortly before midnight.

But if you read to the last few paragraphs, you’ll find that if a flood barrier designed in 1984 to protect Venice from high tides had been working, “we would have avoided this exceptional high tide,” according to Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who blamed climate change in a Twitter post.

And why wasn’t the multi-billion euro project, known as Mose, working?  It has been plagued by the sort of problems that have come to characterize major Italian infrastructure programs — corruption, cost overruns and prolonged delays.  (Reuters)

 

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