Venice 'high water' floods 70% of city

[font size="1"]People sit at a table in flooded St Mark's Square in Venice, Italy Photograph: Luigi Costantini/AP[/font]


(Guardian UK) Tourists attached plastic bags to their legs or stripped off to take a dip in St Mark's Square in Venice on Sunday as rising sea waters surged through the lagoon city. High water measuring 1.49 metres (5ft) above the normal level of the Adriatic sea came with bad weather that swept Italy at the weekend, causing floods in historic cities including Vicenza as well in the region of Tuscany 250 miles further south.

Venice's high water, or "acqua alta", said to be the sixth highest since 1872, flooded 70% of the city and was high enough to make raised wooden platforms for pedestrians float away. The record high water in Venice – 1.94 metres in 1966 – prompted many residents to abandon the city for new lives on the mainland.

Venetians bombarded Facebook with moans about the city's weather forecasters, who had predicted just 1.2 metres of water on Saturday, before correcting their forecast at dawn on Sunday.

"How come the people from the council who put out the wooden platforms were predicting 150cm?" asked Matelda Bottoni, who manages a jewellery design shop off St Mark's Square, which floods when water reaches 105cm. "Many residents and shopkeepers had gone to the mountains for the day and did not have time to rush back." ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/11/venice-floods-high-water-italy