USVI-On-Line

I know there are some fans here of the CT located on the Ligurian coast of Italy. They had some devastating flooding 5-6 days ago. Monterosso and Vernazza were especially hard hit from reports of up to 20 inches of rain in a matter of hours that came flowing down from the hills and mountains above the towns.

This was taken in Vernazza after the flood:



from near the same spot where I took this photo in May:
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/a ... site"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Prl1 ... C01114.JPG" height="426" width="640"></a>

Some links to info and videos:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world ... des&st=cse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GgnXMpMZw8

http://culturalcomments.blogspot.com/20 ... nazza.html

http://www.ricksteves.com/news/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVtGHvg6X1A

My heart goes out to those friendly people in those beautiful towns. I hope they recover.

This is so sad. I got Rick Steve's update today too and I just couldn't believe the devastation to such a beautiful area.

Why wasn't this in the international news? Rick Steve's was the only news on it.

I'm glad that I was fortunate to see this area before this happened.

So sad. Our community in Vermont was hit very badly with Irene, so I have so much empathy for these folks. I had caught a headline of the flooding last week, but you're right Terry, it's been very hard to find and information about this. JMQ, I'll take a look at your other links. Meanwhile, I think I'll take another peak at my photos from September of 2010. I hope they can rebuild.

http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/f ... t=vernazza

It now makes sense why we are just getting word on this disaster. She says it in the blog above.

All roads in and out of Vernazza were washed away, the train tracks buried and people were left with no water, no gas, no electricity and no cell service. The outside world had no news, no contact, no information at all. In a terrifying wave of destruction, Vernazza had been completely severed from the rest of the world.

What a horrifying event. If you've visited this area, you know how remote it is. The only way out for them was by boat to Le Spezia (sp?) to the south. Just finding a boat that wasn't beat up would have been a challenge.

My heart breaks for them. The one u-tube with the cars floating by is the balcony of the hotel we stayed at.