Back in the Fall of 2010, I can remember reading all about the flooding that Northern Italy was experiencing. I had a natural curiosity for Italy, as most Americans do, and Steve and I had always planned on spending a couple of weeks here for our 20th anniversary in 2014. (Ironic, I know) All the weathermen were saying that flooding to that magnitude was a "once in a hundred years occurrence." I can remember hearing about the mudslides in Cinque Terre and thinking that was a place a million miles away from anywhere I'd ever get to experience...
Ditto for the Spring of 2013....
May of 2013 was the real "Motherload" of raining and flooding. It resulted in the first real worrying on our part, our friends literally were flooded out of their house, and we spent weeks cleaning up the mess.
The Fall of 2013 had a few wet spells here and there, but nothing to really speak of. We had grown so accustomed to our river rising and falling with each passing rainstorm, we hardly took notice of it anymore. Even the flooding that happened at the begin of 2014 was barely a blip on our radar.
And then came this storm/flood...
Trey with my boots on...
It has honestly been raining without stop for the past 3 weeks and our ground and river bank finally couldn't take it anymore. UNCLE!! So on Monday, February 3rd, (yesterday) we called for reinforcements after the sad reality that our house was in serious danger of flooding hit us in the face.
The Polizia Locale showed up in force (all 7 of them--I swear it's the entire police force of our tiny town, plus all of the guys must have brought a friend) and they were so nice to us. When our military housing office called them, the first two arrived within 3 minutes...and the next 4 showed up 10 minutes later. I was impressed. I plan to make cookies for them... Our landlord Claudio arrived moments later and he and Steve rushed off to the local "Feed and Seed" to buy sandbags to fill at the town center (the fact that the local Feed and Seed carries sand bags and the local Town Hall has sand available on a regular basis should be a clue as to how much it floods here...) they arrive at 5:15 and the store was closed...shocker...
So it's Tuesday morning now and here's the latest:
The water is up to our patio but hasn't entered the house...we've still got about 4 feet from the edge of the patio to our back door.
The river on the other side of the berm looks to have dropped a bit...
It's supposed to rain all of today, taper off a bit tomorrow, and then pick right back up for the rest of the work week. Saturday is supposed to offer us a much needed break.
I'll keep y'all posted! We LOVE Italy, we love Italy, we love Italy, we love Italy.....
And here's the best part:
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Enter the Fall of 2011, Steve is returning home from 14 months in Afghanistan and the Brock family is in the last weeks of a move to Italy. We arrived on December 2nd, 2011--my 41st birthday, I might add...
Now fast forward to the Spring of 2012--Floodmagedon 2012 (part 1) was small on the scale of what we would have to experience in a few months, but to us it was scary. The roads were closed, bridges into our town were closed, it rained and rained and rained! I though it would never stop!
The Fall of 2012 brought 2 big periods of flooding--one caused by the early snow melting in the surrounding mountains, resulting in our river flooding; and the second caused by massive amounts of rain.
During the flood, and no flood
The Fall of 2012 brought 2 big periods of flooding--one caused by the early snow melting in the surrounding mountains, resulting in our river flooding; and the second caused by massive amounts of rain.
Ditto for the Spring of 2013....
May of 2013 was the real "Motherload" of raining and flooding. It resulted in the first real worrying on our part, our friends literally were flooded out of their house, and we spent weeks cleaning up the mess.
The Fall of 2013 had a few wet spells here and there, but nothing to really speak of. We had grown so accustomed to our river rising and falling with each passing rainstorm, we hardly took notice of it anymore. Even the flooding that happened at the begin of 2014 was barely a blip on our radar.
And then came this storm/flood...
It has honestly been raining without stop for the past 3 weeks and our ground and river bank finally couldn't take it anymore. UNCLE!! So on Monday, February 3rd, (yesterday) we called for reinforcements after the sad reality that our house was in serious danger of flooding hit us in the face.
So it's Tuesday morning now and here's the latest:
The water is up to our patio but hasn't entered the house...we've still got about 4 feet from the edge of the patio to our back door.
The river on the other side of the berm looks to have dropped a bit...
It's supposed to rain all of today, taper off a bit tomorrow, and then pick right back up for the rest of the work week. Saturday is supposed to offer us a much needed break.
I'll keep y'all posted! We LOVE Italy, we love Italy, we love Italy, we love Italy.....
And here's the best part:
Love these guys...
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