One in four in Abruzzo without power due to foul weather

The Italian army was sent into the Abruzzo region Tuesday amid a vicious cold snap that left 300,000 without electrical power and 5,000 without water. The mayors of the two worst-affected towns, Teramo and Chieti, had called for army intervention.

Over 300,000 people in Abruzzo, or about one-fourth of the central region's population, are without power due to the freezing temperatures and snow gripping Italy, Mario Mazzocca, the regional undersecretary in charge of civil protection, said Tuesday.

Most of Teramo was without power Tuesday and many schools in the city, as well as in other Abruzzo cities including Chieti, Sulmona and Pescara, were closed. The Abruzzo region on Tuesday started procedures to ask for a state of emergency to be declared with blizzards scheduled at least until Wednesday.

Other Italian regions struck by devastating earthquakes last year were also badly affected by the extraordinary wave of bad weather that has caused disruption across the country.

Local authorities in the Marche and Umbria regions rocked by earthquakes last October were concerned that damaged buildings could fall under the weight of the snow.
A number of areas in the regions were also without power.

Strong gale winds have also swept northern Italy, including the north-eastern city of Trieste, where the wind reached 141 kmh, and Genoa, where 300 people were temporarily forced to flee their homes early on Tuesday due to a fire on the hills around the port city.  Three schools were also closed in the nearby Val Varenna due to the fire.

ANSA