Venice is being flooded by the highest tide in more than 50 years.
High tides and lashing rain struck Venice Tuesday night bringing the water level in some areas close to a 50-year record high and causing inestimable damage to the centuries-old city.
In a surreal scene, Italian TV showed a person swimming in St. Mark’s square last night as well as other bizarre images of water gushing out of toilets and electrical sockets in homes. An initial survey of the damage of St. Mark’s Basilica, which is in one of the lowest parts of the city, revealed the crypt with its famous mosaics totally submerged in water.
Flooding is not new to the romantic city built centuries ago in the Venetian Lagoon. High waters in Venice, known as ‘’acqua alta’, periodically affect Venice and its surrounding islands during the fall to spring period when a combination of weather and tides raise the level of the sea water. The President of the region, Luca Zaia, told Italian Mediaset TV ‘’We are faced with total, apocalyptic devastation.’’. He went onto say ‘’I’m not exaggerating; 80% of the city is under water, the damage is unimaginable."
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