The fury of rain and wind, damage and flooding in half of Tuscany. 30 thousand rays

Florence, August 30, 2020 – The weekend disturbance should have closed the summer by “splitting” the weather and it did. Orange alert respected: A stormy night that, due to very strong storms and wind, forced the firefighters and civil protection of several municipalities to work excessively, with dozens of calls due to floods, unsafe branches and trees, electrical blackouts and even a fire.

The riots started Saturday night at dinner time on the Tyrrhenian coast to move inland overnight and violently hit the metropolitan plain of Florence, Prato and Pistoia.

The systems have counted up to 30 thousand lightning strikes over Tuscany: the map below shows the incredible concentration of electrical activity in central and northern Italy during the night of Saturday and Sunday.

Obviously, the damage is nothing compared to the enormous tragedy of Marina di Massa, where a 3-year-old girl and her 14-year-old sister died after a tree collapsed in the tent where she was camping with her family (another sister was slightly injured, her parents unharmed). However, there were several problems in the middle of Tuscany, fortunately without other victims.

In Mucigliano (in the municipality of Asciano, Siena) the candle of the church bell of Sant’Andrea collapsed. Part of the cover has fallen off; firefighters secured the structure and also closed the road as a precaution. In the province of Siena, various interventions due to bad weather, broken branches, fallen trees and water damage.

A Dicomano (Florence) a large tree, a linden, has collapsed on state highway 67 in the town of Vicolagna. The Borgo San Lorenzo fire brigade was on the scene; near the tragedy, luckily no people are involved.

A Vinci (Florence) At 1.30 in the morning lightning struck via Dianella: the lightning caused the fire of a tall tree and a brush, a fire fueled by the strong wind.

A Meadow the storm lasted three hours, with an abundance of thunder and lightning: about fifteen interventions by firefighters, including an elevator that stopped and a fire started in an electrical panel. The underpass of the hospital was closed for more than an hour by Civil Protection because the blackout had put the sewage pumps out of service. Floods also in the Coiano area for the same reason: the lack of electricity prevented the pumps from drawing water from basements and garages.

A fallen woman rescued by a fire team in the river in the Ombrone in Prato while trying to retrieve his dog that ended up in the water. The flow of the river had increased due to the rains of the last hours. To bring the woman and her dog, both rescued, ashore, it was necessary to send specialized personnel in water rescue. the accident occurred at the Ponte delle Cicogne, in Viale Unione Europea.

In Versilia floods in Viareggio; thunderstorm on Saturday night, then strong wind and heavy rains throughout the Apuano-Versiliana coast.

A Livorno More than twenty interventions are requested from the firefighters: eleven for trees or branches in danger (5 in Livorno, 4 in Cecina and 2 in Portoferraio); instead ten for failures (6 in Livorno, one in Piombino and 3 in Portoferraio).

A Pisa Operating room 115 received around 50 requests for intervention due to bad weather. These are mostly unsafe trees and minor damage to power lines.

A Pistoia floods and fallen trees. In Via Mameli a large cedar broke, knocking its branches over a parked car. Fortunately, there were no people inside the vehicle.

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