A total of 12 people became victims of the storm “Kieran” in Europe after the element struck the Italian region of Tuscany and caused floods that killed five people, the Associated Press reported.
Italy’s civil protection service said 200mm of rain fell in the area from the coastal city of Livorno in three hours, causing rivers to overflow. Video footage also shows the water sweeping away at least ten cars on a flooded road.
The regional governor of Tuscany, Eugenio Gianni, announced the five victims on social media, also publishing photos of flooded areas.
At least three people are missing in Tuscany and one person is missing in the mountains in the Veneto region, north of Venice. Alerts were issued in other areas and authorities warned that the storm was heading towards southern Italy.
A total of seven people died yesterday when the storm “Kieran” passed through Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The storm destroyed homes, caused chaos among commuters and knocked out power to many households.
As the storm moved, Pisa and Mugello were also affected, where hospitals were flooded. In Tuscany, railways and highways were disrupted and schools were closed. Hundreds of people were stranded with no way to get home, including around 150 people stranded in Prato after a train line was shut down last night.
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The mayor of the city of Prato said he was shocked by the strength of the floods that hit the city overnight. Early this morning, residents in the area were working to repair the damage.
“A punch in the stomach, a pain that brings tears. But even after an evening and a night of devastation, we are rolling up our sleeves to clean up and bring our city back to normal,” Mayor Matteo Bifoni wrote on social media.
Florence Mayor Dario Nardella told Sky TG24 that the Arno River, which runs through the center of the city, had reached alert level one, with it forecast to reach its highest levels at midday.
“The psychological fear is great, given that tomorrow is the anniversary of the 1966 flood,” Nardella said, referring to the flood that killed 101 people and damaged or destroyed millions of works of art and rare books.
In the southern Austrian province of Carinthia, which borders Italy and Slovenia, wind and heavy rain overnight led to power outages, blocked roads and landslides. About 1,600 households remained without electricity this morning, the Austrian APA agency reported.
The storm has already passed through northern France and the Atlantic coast, but heavy rain continued in some regions as emergency services repaired the damage from the day before.
Meanwhile, Corsica, in the Mediterranean, was hit today by strong winds of up to 140km/h, and flood warnings were issued for regions in the Pyrenees in the south-west.
More than half a million French households were left without electricity for a second day, mostly in the western region of Brittany. Trains were halted in several areas and many roads remained closed. French President Emmanuel Macron headed today to the storm-hit regions of Brittany, and Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne traveled to the affected parts of Normandy.
