Thirty hours of insulation. An endless time for the forty families of sapphia who on Sunday morning saw dozens of tons of land, water and mud transported downstream by the Fornaci district stream in front of their homes. Many of their cars were damaged. The houses, almost all of them, had no damage because they were built higher than that road (re) that became a stream.
Earth movement vehicles have finished working around 4pm. They raised a makeshift embankment to defend the road from the waterway still enlarged by the sensational rains of two days ago. They used the land that the stream brought down to the valley in a couple of hours with the strength and violence that the inhabitants of the area had never seen.
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The mud, the boulders, the earth come from the failure of a side of the mountain that dominates what is the original nucleus of Zafferia. The remains of the old church have been there for 800 years and also that building and the nearby access bridge have been built much higher than the stream. “Last summer there was a big fire up there – said commissioner Massimiliano Minutoli who led the inspection of yesterday afternoon which was also attended by the DG of the Municipality Salvo Puccio, the commissioner Francesco Caminiti, the chief engineer of the Civil Engineer Santi Found and representatives of the Basin Authority -. The absence of vegetation made the hill more subject to landslides and sagging that the abundant rain on Sunday triggered. Now we will talk to the technicians to find a solution in the immediate and in the medium term ».
Yesterday morning, after all the piled and crumpled cars had been movedthe scenario that presented itself was that of a single large bed of the stream. The riverbed that was two meters lower than the arginal road that leads to about twenty homes was completely filled with debris rolled down from the mountain. Material that covered the catwalk that connects the area of via Kuba with the center of Zafferia. The space left under that bridge could never be sufficient to flow the flow of the stream and the pouring of mud. When the flooding came when it has been inspired by both the shores of the stream. With the tracked vehicles of the Civil Protection around 2 pm the catwalk was completely freed. A passage was created and the body of a deceased man on Saturday was also, after thirty hours, transferred to the church for the last greeting.
Throughout the day, the inhabitants, alone (no volunteer support was taken), they did to clean the area closest to their homes And they also tried to save the salvable in their cars, some completely compromised by the large amount of mud that has invested them. «I lost a car in August when there was a similar situation and I saw it drag away another now. Tell me what should I do? ” Antonio says, one of the inhabitants of Contrada Chiesa Vecchia. “It is the fourth time that happens in less than a year – the daughter of the deceased shows that only in extremis was taken to the church for the funeral -. This time it was very violent. For us a drama in the drama ». The comments on the fact that the houses are too close to the stream or worse not regular, make the residents angry. “Here I have fiber, gas and all services – says John -. There is also public lighting and toponymy plaque. Here everything is in order ». The Regional Manager of Civil Protection Salvo Cocina commented on Sunday’s events speaking of relocation of homes close to the watercourse. »Send us away? – says Giovanni Rizzo who still has a shovel with which he is freeing his car from mud -. We are afraid, if it were certain that we would do it ».