Nature often presents very high bills and destroys in an amen. Instead, man creates, with actions that can prove harmful to himself, first and foremost. In this unequal battle, the time factor proves decisive. Just as preventing and learning from past mistakes are fundamental. Instead, more often than not, emergencies follow one another and old mistakes are made.
Coastal erosion, for example, is a contemporary plague, thanks to climate changes that cause extreme weather events. The residents of the Ionian area of Messina, whose sea is increasingly frightening, know something about it. Last winter, Cyclone Harry exposed the coasts of Roccalumera, Furci, Santa Teresa di Riva and Letojanni. With very serious repercussions which in the summer season now coming to an end have translated into a reduction in tourist presences. Once the storm passed, the mayors did their utmost to restore the injured territories according to their possibilities, in the hope of making the waterfronts and beaches in good condition from June to September. Now, the time has come to roll up our sleeves again and resume the interrupted plan of safety interventions, so as to complete the works. In Santa Teresa di Riva, the green light is about to come on, after the “mockery” of the delivery of the coastal defense works on February 20th, in the aftermath of Cyclone Harry, when the President of the Region Renato Schifani went to the site and announced the turning point which will only materialize in the next few days. But couldn’t the long-awaited contract have started earlier? “Better late than never” we would say and the case of Sant’Alessio Siculo docet. In fact, the Ionian center absorbed the blows of Cyclone Harry thanks to defense works that began way back in 1997, were completed in June 2025 and cost 30 million euros.
«To deal with such emergencies we should act on two levels: on the one hand, speeding up the procedures and bureaucratic procurement process, and on the other, carrying out district projects against threats from the sea», states the mayor of Santa Teresa di Riva Danilo Lo Giudice. According to which, «it is not normal for each individual municipality to think for itself. Rather, a single control room would be needed to address the problems of coastal erosion.” Right and shareable ideas in the face of a natural phenomenon that will reappear in our latitudes. It is therefore up to man to adopt countermeasures and avoid persevering in mistakes. That would be truly diabolical.
