Italy disaster: 11 regions declare state of emergency as bad weather floods country
ITALY has been ravaged by bad weather sending 11 regions into a state of emergency on the same day Sicily is paying respect to the nine people who died after they remained trapped in their house during a storm.
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The country is facing a £2.62bn (€3bn) clean up bill after torrential rain flooded huge areas and killed 17 people. Severe winds and storms destroyed homes and wiped out forests, including the iconic Red Fir forest on the Dolomites, considered one of the green lungs of Italy. About 14 million trees are estimated to have been uprooted since the gales of up to 112mph began to blow across the northeast and south west areas of the country.
READ MORE: Italy weather: Four dies as storm RAVAGES Italy leaving towns ISOLATED and wood DESTROYED
And Venice, one of Italy's most famous cities, was completed flooded in the highest waters to hit the canal city in 10 years.
Italy’s Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli has appointed a commissioner to deal with the state of emergency saying someone was needed to “follow simplified procedures" to "do well and legally”.
While waiting for a emergency meeting of the Cabinet, the governors of 11 regions have requested to be given the state of emergency status.
These regions are Liguria, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicily, Lazio, Sardinia, Calabria, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Trentino Alto Adige.
Piedmont in the north west is on an amber weather alert for the next 36 hours as the Po, Italy's longest river, flooded near Turin.
Secondo Barbero, director of ARPA, the Italian environmental agency, said: "The flooding Po, which this morning was affecting the area of Cuneo, is coming to Turin.
"We expect the level of the river will raise of further 50 centimetres."
And Liguria is under a yellow alert, after in its capital city, Genoa, many basements were flooded by the uncessant rains.
These 11 regions now intend to coordinate at a national level to acess the EU Solidarity Fund, which provides areas affected by natural disasters with funds from a £435m (€500m) pot.
The Italian Minister of the Environment, Sergio Costa, said: "The money is there and we have projects ready.
"If the funds should not be enough to pay for the reparations, we'll go look for more in other European funds."
Italy have mourned 32 deaths within days.
Just last week four people died in the northern regions of Italy, two in Alto Adige, the region neighbouring Germany, and two in Aosta, near France’s border.
An 81-year-old man died after he fell from the roof of a hut he was repairing after the damages caused by the bad weather.
A 53-year-old man was killed by a tree that hit his car.
The two other victims also died after a tree fell on the car they were travelling in.
And nine more died in Sicily, as two families, including a one-year-old girl, remained trapped in their house in the small city of Casteldeccia, near Palermo, following a mud landslide.
Additional reporting by Maria Ortega