https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2018/10/30/three-quarters-venice-just-flooded-while-its-costly-flood-gate-sits-unfinished/
[Meanwhile the 'conservatives' in Canada can't figure out if they still
think climate change is a hoax, or if they should prevent any proactive
measures to combat it because the federal measures proposed aren't
strong enough. Strangely enough, I was in Venice this past June,
primarily because I wanted to see it before climate change (rising sea
levels and storms) took it. None too soon, it appears.
links and images in online article]
Three quarters of Venice just flooded while its costly flood gate sits
unfinished
By Angela Fritz and Stefano Pitrelli
October 30 at 1:56 PM
A violent, strengthening windstorm in Europe mangled the Italian coast
on Monday, tossing yachts like toys and generating the worst storm-surge
flooding in a decade.
The storm, which has killed 10 people since Sunday, lashed Italy with
45-mph sustained winds. It intensified significantly as it tracked
northeast into Central Europe, resembling a powerful wintertime storm.
In Venice, strong winds blowing onshore from the Mediterranean generated
a five-foot storm surge. The surge flooded 77 percent of Venice,
according to city officials.
The water climbed above raised sidewalks that are normally put in place
during high-tide flooding, according to the Associated Press, and
officials closed the water-bus system in the hardest-hit areas.
Venetians and tourists waded through the streets in waist-high water.
Police tweeted some tourists were stranded by the rising water. Business
owners used pumps to protect their stores after barriers failed to keep
the water from coming through doors and windows.
At 61.4 inches, Monday’s flood was the worst in Venice in a decade and
the fifth largest on record. It was tied with the December 2008 flood,
when onshore winds peaked at around 45 mph. Venice’s highest water
level, 76 inches, was recorded in 1966.
Sea level has been rising rapidly in Venice — at a rate faster than in
other parts of the world — in part because the city itself is sinking.
Decades ago, the city realized that pumping groundwater was causing the
city to settle and sink, and officials stopped the practice. But a 2012
study found that, despite a brief pause, Venice had started to sink
again after the early 2000s. Removing groundwater, scientists
hypothesized, was simply exacerbating the main problem: Shifting
tectonic plates below Italy were causing the coast to slowly sink into
the sea.
Between the sinking and the sea-level rise, climate scientists predict
Venice will be entirely underwater by the end of this century.
“Venice was built at sea level, something which across history helped
protect it from invasions and barbarians, as the city was never
conquered by sea,” said Paolo Canestrelli, founder and former head of
the municipality’s Tide Monitoring and Forecast Centre, “but nowadays
the sea is no longer a safeguard as much as a liability, as we’re among
the first cities in the world to suffer such events."
Canestrelli, who invented the multitone alarm that warned the city of
the rising tide Monday morning, explains how the Sirocco — a well-known
wind blowing from North Africa across the Mediterranean — sometimes
pumps seawater into Venice and floods it. But the other cause is the
rise of global temperatures, “which have increased the average sea level
across the whole of Earth’s surface, and even more so in Venice, it
lying just a few inches above water."
Tides high enough to flood the city used to be a relatively rare
occurrence, every 20 to 30 years or so, he pointed out, whereas now they
happen every four or five years.
For decades, the municipality has been seeking a technological solution
to protect the ancient city from floods like the one on Monday. It
finally opted for the installation of a massive underwater floodgate
system called MOSE. But a corruption scandal ultimately led to what
infrastructure minister Danilo Toninelli has called an “unjustified and
dangerous” paralysis. Construction has been at a standstill for years,
while the huge feat of engineering lies unfinished at the bottom of
Venice’s lagoon. Parts of it may already be damaged by seawater.
“You can’t let such a project stay unused,” Canestrelli said. “We’ve
spent millions of euros, and now we’re letting it die down there?”
The storm did more than just flood damage up and down Italy’s coast.
Monday’s winds were so strong they ripped a 2,100-passenger cruise ship
from its moorings. The Celebrity Constellation, which was docked in La
Spezia, then drifted into another cruise ship, the Costa Magica. Debbie
Laughton, who Newsweek identified as being a passenger on the
Constellation, called it “organized chaos” when Celebrity Cruise Lines
had to evacuate in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday.
High-tide flooding is forecast to continue through Wednesday in Venice,
while winds from the southeast push seawater into the lagoon city. Peak
water levels are expected to reach 43 inches, which, according to city
officials, occurs in Venice about four times per year.
