Italy’s top disaster official: Whole country is ‘at risk’

Italy’s top disaster official warned Monday that the whole country is “at risk,” after a deadly mudslide Saturday tore across the island of Ischia, killing eight people and triggering a political fight.

At least 94 percent of Italian municipalities are at risk of flooding, landslides and coastal erosion, according to Italy’s Civil Protection Department. “All of Italy is at risk,” Fabrizio Curcio, who heads the department, said in an interview with La Stampa published Monday. 

The disaster was reported to be the worst to hit Ischia in 20 years, with 126 millimeters of rain falling in six hours. Four people are still missing.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Cabinet declared a state of emergency on the island and approved €2 million to address the aftermath of the landslide. 

Critics say the government’s move comes too late and argue that politicians’ response to the disaster is hypocritical, pointing out than an amnesty signed by the 5Star-League government in 2018 granted a reprieve to illegal constructions in the country, despite Italy’s hydrogeological instability.

Turin Mayor Stefano Lo Russo said “it hurts to see the statements of politicians who are responsible for the amnesty launched by the 5Star-League government in 2018, also supported by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.”

“It is even more sad that in this country the political forces deal with hydrogeological instability only when tragedies of this type happen,” he added.

Far-right League leader Matteo Salvini — who is currently Italy’s infrastructure minister and was deputy prime minister when the amnesty was signed — dodged the criticism and urged via Twitter that it was time to “secure the country from North to South.”

The mudslide wasn’t Italy’s only natural disaster this fall. Eleven people were killed by flash floods in the central region of Marche in September following torrential rain, an event scientists said was exacerbated by climate change.