The flooding is rather serious here ... 3 rivers have broken their banks and already 5 people are confirmed dead, with 3 missing.
We’re up on the hill here in the city and, as far as I know, there are no rivers close by ... We have bought supplies and hope that the rain stops soon but already noted that via XX Settembre is closed down by the covered market. Rain is predicted for a couple more days. There have been some impressive ‘Fiordland rainforest’ downpours througout the day, the difference being that Fiordland New Zealand sits on glacial moraine and drainage is rather efficent. Here the rain all runs down off the hills that surround Genova ... down into the homes and streets that lead to the sea.
It’s 18 celsius, with a warm wind blowing, as I write this at 17.11. It’s disturbingly dark ... daylight saving ended at the weekend, and there is this odd sense of not being sure of what is happening in the city, beyond what I’m reading in the English newspaper found online. It was like this in Istanbul when the city was closed by two huge snowfalls but somehow, this is different. I am realising, once again, that I didn’t prepare for stuff like this.
You will get a sense of it perhaps when viewing one of the early slideshows of the flooding.