Associated Press
By Alessandro Rizzo
December 12, 2008
ROME (AP) Rome declared a state of emergency as
the swollen Tiber river threatened to flood Friday and the death toll from the
heavy rains battering much of Italy rose to four.
The Civil
Protection Department said the Tiber had risen
about 16 feet (5 meters) in the past two days and warned it might burst its
banks.
Officials
evacuated Gypsy camps along the Tiber's banks and boats broke loose from their moorings
in the surging water. The smaller Aniene river, which flows into the Tiber, already overflowed,
forcing officials to close down some streets in Rome and evacuate hundreds of people.
"It is as if
there has been an earthquake," Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno
told the daily La Repubblica.
Tourists snapped
pictures as the roiling Tiber surged
underneath the city's bridges. Lumir, an Afghan hound, sported a blue raincoat Friday as
his owner watched the Tiber rise in Rome.
Italy has been hit by days of
bad weather, and TV footage has shown entire neighborhoods flooded or submerged
by mud.
Downpours
disrupted traffic Friday from Milan in the north
to Palermo, Sicily, in the south, as trains were delayed
and many streets were flooded or blocked by fallen trees. A few inches (centimeters)
of water again covered Venice's lowest parts, including the landmark St. Mark's Square, while Alpine rescuers saved a group of
boy scouts who had been trapped on Mount Etna.
Four people were
reported killed. Rescuers recovered the body of a man in southern Italy who was
swept away in the heavy rains, while an elderly man died after his car was hit
by a tree and another one was killed in a car crash in a rainstorm, police in
the southern city of Reggio Calabria said.
A woman was
killed Thursday after her car was submerged in an underpass in Rome.
In Rome and Venice,
two of the hardest-hit cities, union officials called off local transport
strikes.
Shows at the
Auditorium, an exhibition and concert center in northern Rome designed by architect Renzo Piano, were canceled Friday night.
On Thursday, more
rain fell in Rome
than the usual average for the entire month of December, city officials said.
On Mount Etna, eight boy scouts were rescued Friday after
being trapped by a snowstorm at a refuge on the mountain's
north slope at an altitude of 1,700 meters (5,577
feet).
In Venice, alarms sounded
early in the morning as the high tide came in and parts of the city flooded.
Still, the water was far less than the unusually high tide recorded in the
lagoon city last week, when residents and tourists waded through knee-high
water, shops were flooded and much of the city was brought to a halt