Historical disasters
4. Floods
4.2. Italy
Italy is a country that suffers hydrogeological instability: floods and landslides.One of the most important flood historical event in Italy is when the Arno flooded Florence in 3 and 4 november 1966. The flood was caused by the intensive rains of the previous days. The consequences of that tragic event were very serious. The flood caused 48 deaths, 5 missings and 46.600 displaced, caused enormous damages in the all Tuscany, and in particular to the historical and cultural capital Early in the morning of the 4th November, in the old town centre of Florence there was 3 metres of water and mud. The flood caused a lot of deep damages to the artistic assets of the city :1200 artworks, 2 millions of important volumes and 1600 m2 of frescoes were submerged in the mud. The artworks were ruined gravely because citizens and business owners were warned late. In the following days a lot of rescuers came from every part of Italy and from all the World to take assistance to the citizens. A lot of volunteers salvaged and secured the artworks submerged in the mud in the storage rooms of the Uffizi museum. The most terrible damages were in the National Central Library and in the Cavalleggeri square. Fortunately some volumes and manuscripts were recovered, but on the other hand a lot of them were destroyed in the mud. The restoration of Florence continued for many years.
