Venice assesses damage after tornado strike

Venice’s lagoon is studded with dozens of islands and the worst hit by the tornado were Certosa, Sant’Elena and Sant’Erasmo.

On Sant’Erasmo, an island which is larger than Venice itself and which protects the lagoon from the open sea, homes had their roofs ripped off and trees were uprooted.

The island, once known as the “garden of the Doges”, produces vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, artichokes and courgettes for Venice and there was substantial damage to around 300 hectares of farmland.

The damage was likely to run into several million euros, said Coldiretti, an agricultural association, which described the impact of the whirlwind as “a disaster”.

The one casualty was on the island of Sant’Elena, where a boy suffered a head wound.

A small pine wood on the island was flattened.

On the island of Certosa, an estimated 1,000 trees were knocked over and a medieval cloister was badly damaged.

“The tornado could have caused serious injuries, other than the damage that we have witnessed. Luckily that did not happen and for that we must be grateful,” said Sandro Simionato, the deputy mayor of Venice. “The people who were hit by this weather event reacted with courage and calmness.” Tornadoes are rare in Italy. The last one to hit Venice was in 1970, when a vaporetto ferry sank with the loss of 21 lives.

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