Rising sea levels because of climate change
coupled with Venice’s well-documented sinking
make the city built amid a system of canals
particularly vulnerable. The sea level in Venice is
10 centimeters (4 inches) higher than it was 50
years ago, according to the city’s tide office.
Venice’s mayor said the damage this week is
estimated at “hundreds of millions of euros.”
“Venice is on its knees,’’ Mayor Luigi Brugnaro
said earlier this week on Twitter. “St. Mark’s
Basilica has sustained serious damage, like the
entire city and its islands.”
One death was blamed on the flooding, on the
barrier island of Pellestrina. A man in his 70s was
apparently electrocuted when he tried to start a
pump in his dwelling.
In Venice, the crypt beneath St. Mark’s Basilica
was inundated for only the second time in its
history. Damage was also reported at the Ca’
Pesaro modern art gallery, where a short circuit
set off a fire, and at the La Fenice theater, where
authorities turned off electricity as a precaution
after the control room was flooded.
Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini,
said no damage had been reported to art
collections in museums throughout the city.
Many sites remained closed to tourists, and
La Fenice canceled concerts Wednesday and
Thursday evening.
Tourists floated suitcases through St. Mark’s
Square, where officials removed walkways
to prevent them from drifting away. Wooden
boards that shop and hotel owners had placed
on their doors in previous floods couldn’t hold
back the water.