Italy Declares Emergency as Southern Regions Face Storm Devastation

Impact of Storms on Southern Italy

By Angelo Amante

Extent of Damage

ROME, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Italy's government on Monday declared a state of emergency for southern regions battered by a violent storm last week, pledging swift financial aid to rebuild roads and businesses hit by the severe weather.

Government Response

Relentless rain, powerful winds and waves as high as nine metres (30 ft) battered Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria for two days, pushing water inland and overwhelming coastal defences.

Concerns for Tourism

Authorities have estimated that the damage ran to more than 1 billion euros ($1.19 billion) but despite the scale of the destruction, officials reported no casualties.

Local Reactions

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government set aside an initial 100 million euros to address the initial needs of the hardest-hit areas, Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said in a statement.

"In the coming days, the government will adopt a new interministerial measure to allow the restoration and reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure," Musumeci said.

Sicily alone suffered around 740 million euros worth of damage, the regional government said last week, but the island's governor, Renato Schifani, warned on Monday that the final amount could be double that.

The sea flooded streets in popular hotspots near Taormina, wrecking infrastructure such as wastewater treatment facilities, and raising concerns over the forthcoming tourist season. In Catania, a section of sidewalk collapsed on the seafront.

Land subsidence, probably triggered by the bad weather, is now threatening the town of Niscemi, in central Sicily, and around 1,000 people have had to be evacuated from their homes, the civil protection said in a statement.

Sardinia was also badly hit. Beniamino Garau, the mayor of Capoterra in the south of the island, said the sea had pushed about 100 metres inland.

In Calabria, the regional administration said the storm caused "major damage to agricultural business...with serious repercussions for the rural economy" in one of Italy's least developed areas.

Extreme weather events have become more frequent in Italy in recent years. Floods have devastated cities across the country, killing dozens of people and amplifying risks of landslides and floods also in historically less exposed areas.

However, locals said regional civil protection alerts issued ahead of the storm had persuaded people to stay at home, preventing any deaths or serious injuries.

($1 = 0.8409 euros)

(Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Crispian Balmer)