Angst in Rome voor dreigende overstroming van de Tiber

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Waterpeil Tiber op recordhoogte

ROME - Rome vreest overstromingen nu het peil van de rivier de Tiber na dagenlange regen op recordhoogte is aangeland. In het centrum van de Italiaanse hoofdstad stond het peil maandag op veertien meter wat in de laatste vijftig jaar niet meer is gemeten, zo berichtten de autoriteiten maandag.



Het stortregende enkele dagen achtereen in het gebergte van de Appenijnen en de watermassa stortten zich richting Rome en de nabijgelegen zee. Rome hoeft volgens weermeldingen maandag geen overstromingen te verwachten, maar dinsdag gaat het in de bergen weer regenen.

De eeuwige stad loopt onder wanneer het peil in de Tiber op zeventien meter komt. Sommige media in Italië vrezen het ergste voor de komende natte dagen. Een woordvoerder van de gemeente zei maandag echter geruststellend dat het kritieke peil dezer dagen niet wordt gehaald ondanks het regenachtige weer.

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Rome braces for Tiber river
ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Officials monitoring the River Tiber fear it could break its banks as early as Friday evening after a spate of bad weather in Italy, the country's Civil Protection Department said.

A rescue boat patrols the swollen River Tiber in central Rome early Friday.

The situation is under control in central Rome, but two people have died from weather-related accidents elsewhere.

The head of the Italian Civil Protection Department said there is a 50-percent chance the river could overflow its banks and cause disruption in some neighborhoods in northern Rome. He said the department was on high alert.

"We haven't seen a situation like this in 100 years," Guido Bertolaso told reporters, "but we have plenty of time to prepare ourselves and all security measures are being put in place."

Hundreds of volunteers and civil protection officials have been deployed around Rome to monitor the situation, the Civil Protection Department said. So far no homes have been evacuated, but firefighters Thursday had to rescue dozens of motorists stranded in their cars.

Residents are being urged to use their vehicles only if strictly necessary.

Because of the intense rain, the streets of some northern Rome neighborhoods are already flooded by water and covered in thick brown mud.

For two days, Italy has been hit by a wave of bad weather that claimed the lives of at least two people.

One woman died early Thursday near Rome when her car was submerged by a wave of water and mud in an underpass. The body of a second victim was found in the southern region of Calabria after a bridge collapsed.



The Tiber begins in the Appenines of eastern Tuscany and flows through the regions of Umbria and Lazio before reaching Rome and ending in the Mediterranean Sea

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Op vrijdag 12 december 2008 14:32 schreef HzHertz het volgende:
Als ik al die topics van t afgelopen paar uur van jou lees, denk ik dat het einde van de wereld over een paar uur nabij is