For hard-hit Venice, the news just keeps getting worse, as day after day of high water has hit the city since last Wednesday’s near-record high tide. Over 50 churches have flooded, hundreds of stores have lost stock stored in basements and many are unable to use the lower floors of their homes.
Although the Italian government has pledged aid, with €22 million of it immediate, the cost of repairs will be immense; the mayor has suggested it will be more than €1 billion, and some losses may be permanent. And tourism authorities report that both near-term and long-term reservations are at risk.
The Wednesday flood was the second-highest recorded ever, and the highest was recorded only fifty years ago. Saint Marc’s Basilica and its treasured art flooded for only the sixth time in history—and four of those have occurred in the past 20 years.
The city’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, blames the accelerating crisis on climate change, and asks what many have asked: why hasn’t the long-delayed, highly-touted Moses project designed to protect the city from the highest tides been completed?
Way over cost and way past their projected completion dates, the series of tide gates has no official completion date posted. Luca Zaia, Veneto regional president, told Italian media that the barriers were almost complete, but that it’s not clear if they would have worked against this level of flooding, which reached 74″, a level that means 85% of the city was under water, with more flooding expected in high, but not as high tides. The highest ever, in 1966, was 76″.
