Italian storms claim 17th life, and 14 million trees

 

Fallen trees are seen in the mountain near Belluno, Italy, November 3, 2018. Vigili del Fuoco/Handout via REUTERS

 

MILAN (Reuters) - Heavy rain and gales devastating parts of Italy have claimed two more lives, taking the overall death toll to at least 17, and laid waste to vast swathes of forest.

 

A German tourist died on Friday when hit by lightning on the island of Sardinia while another person struck by lightning several days ago died in hospital, Italy's Civil Protection Agency said on Saturday.

 

A spokeswoman said 17 deaths related to the severe weather had been reported to the Agency so far.

 

Many of the victims to date have been killed by falling trees. Coldiretti, the association of Italian agricultural companies, said in a statement that gales had destroyed around 14 million trees, many in the far north.

 

Areas from the far northeast to Sicily in the southwest have been affected by the storms, with the worst damage in the northern regions of Trentino and Veneto - the region around Venice - where villages and roads have been cut off by landslides.

 

In the Alps near Belluno, 100 km (60 miles) north of Venice, pine trees and red spruces were snapped wholesale like matchsticks.

 

The surface of the Comelico Superiore dam, farther north near the Austrian border, was covered with the trunks of trees that had fallen into the Piave river.

 

"We'll need at least a century to return to normality," Coldiretti said.

 

Many of the squares and walkways of Venice itself have been submerged in the highest floods the canal city has seen in a decade.

 

The governor of Veneto, Luca Zaia, said the region's storm damage amounted to at least a billion euros (877.73 million pounds).

 

Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection agency, said Veneto had seen winds of up to 180 kph (112 mph), and that the situation there was "apocalyptic".

 

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini was due to visit the region on Sunday.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-11-04

Get to the important bits.

Has it/will have any effect on wine production?

3 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Get to the important bits.

Has it/will have any effect on wine production?

Nope, there were huge rains and 180 km/h winds in mountains valleys, quite likely related with an exceptionally hot October, but there are no bad news about the vineyards.

There is climate change ,it happens all the time has been for millions of years, in fact even in the 70s i think it was we had storms that knocked down thousands of trees in Britain , just nature , just like up to 50 million people died last time there was no rain for two years in  1875 and 1876  in Asia and Brazil etc . its called nature , not the tax grabbing "climate change"

Must have taken some time to count up to 17 million .

3 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

And what climatologists have put forth a theory saying  "that freak weather is totally man-made."

Stop creating falsehoods.

If you read my posts, it should be obvious to you that i'm sitting on the fence, so don't accuse me of creating falsehoods.

18 minutes ago, Tweedle dee said:

Must have taken some time to count up to 17 million .

They actually stopped counting after 14 million trees!

6 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

25 minutes ago, Tweedle dee said:

Must have taken some time to count up to 17 million .

They actually stopped counting after 14 million trees!

Not so difficult, if you know the average number of trees in let's say, 100 square mts, and you have a rough idea of the size of the area involved.

35 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Nope, there were huge rains and 180 km/h winds in mountains valleys, quite likely related with an exceptionally hot October, but there are no bad news about the vineyards.

Thanks. Can now have an easy day.

Sad about the loss of life though.

1 minute ago, overherebc said:

Thanks. Can now have an easy day.

Sad about the loss of life though.

As sad one can be for any loss of life, the numbers are quite low, compared to the magnitude of the disaster which happened in huge forest areas, but oddly enough, not in any major towns.

There are probably more people killed in road accidents in Italy in one single day.

More "weaponisation of weather" they have had the ability to change weather for 50 years now, but "they wouldn't do that would they? 

Not even to further their cause ????

1 hour ago, mauGR1 said:

Not so difficult, if you know the average number of trees in let's say, 100 square mts, and you have a rough idea of the size of the area involved.

Then perhaps that's the way they should have quoted the estimated damage and a lot of homeless birds ???? 

2 minutes ago, Tweedle dee said:

Then perhaps that's the way they should have quoted the estimated damage and a lot of homeless birds ???? 

Don't worry about the birds, still plenty of trees, and they don't get bills coming every month

2 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

Don't worry about the birds, still plenty of trees, and they don't get bills coming every month

bills ?? don't you mean Beaks ????

58 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

I actually did a simple and then not so simple search and found nothing. Unless you mean something as unreliable as "cloud seeding." But since that mainstream does report on that, it doesn't seem to conform to your claim.

Before you resort to personal digs why not try harder? try "weaponization of weather" then if you don't agree with what you read - fine, but kindly resort from pointless attacks on my integrity ???? 

Troll posts and the replies have been removed. 

8 hours ago, i claudius said:

There is climate change ,it happens all the time has been for millions of years, in fact even in the 70s i think it was we had storms that knocked down thousands of trees in Britain , just nature , just like up to 50 million people died last time there was no rain for two years in  1875 and 1876  in Asia and Brazil etc . its called nature , not the tax grabbing "climate change"

Thank you well said. 

7 hours ago, mauGR1 said:

Don't worry about the birds, still plenty of trees, and they don't get bills coming every month

Some do......

 

9 hours ago, i claudius said:

There is climate change ,it happens all the time has been for millions of years, in fact even in the 70s i think it was we had storms that knocked down thousands of trees in Britain , just nature , just like up to 50 million people died last time there was no rain for two years in  1875 and 1876  in Asia and Brazil etc . its called nature , not the tax grabbing "climate change"

I missed reading your research. Can you tell me where it was published. 

Until then, I'll keep trusting to people known as climatologists.

 

Scientists Can Now Blame Individual Natural Disasters on Climate Change

Extreme event attribution is one of the most rapidly expanding areas of climate science

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-can-now-blame-individual-natural-disasters-on-climate-change/

17 hours ago, bristolboy said:

I missed reading your research. Can you tell me where it was published. 

Until then, I'll keep trusting to people known as climatologists.

 

Scientists Can Now Blame Individual Natural Disasters on Climate Change

Extreme event attribution is one of the most rapidly expanding areas of climate science

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-can-now-blame-individual-natural-disasters-on-climate-change/

Interesting these pseudo scientist are using the world "blame" rather than "link" or "correlate". I guess it is a blame game even for the guys in white coats with thick glasses.

3 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Interesting these pseudo scientist are using the world "blame" rather than "link" or "correlate". I guess it is a blame game even for the guys in white coats with thick glasses.

Interesting that someone who believes he has the knowledge to discern who among scientists who is genuine and who not, doesn't understand that this is a survey article written by a reporter. Either the reporter chose the title or an editor did. The scientists in question had nothing to do with it.

Edited November 5, 20187 yr by bristolboy

7 hours ago, bristolboy said:

Interesting that someone who believes he has the knowledge to discern who among scientists who is genuine and who not, doesn't understand that this is a survey article written by a reporter. Either the reporter chose the title or an editor did. The scientists in question had nothing to do with it.

I don't blame the reporter nor the editor, just do it right the next time.

6 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

I don't blame the reporter nor the editor, just do it right the next time.

Then who do you blame? The "pseudo scientists" who had nothing to do with that title? 

2 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Then who do you blame? The "pseudo scientists" who had nothing to do with that title? 

I don't blame anybody, it is just a poor choice of word if they want to get the message across.

Why the blame game?

6 minutes ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

I don't blame anybody, it is just a poor choice of word if they want to get the message across.

Why the blame game?

You call these cliimatologists "pseudo scientists" and you get indignant about "blame game"? Bizarre.