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Frightening - hope everyone is okay. And thoughts are with anyone directly involved.

xx

I do hope you are all ok out there.

Best wishes

Di and Dave

My thoughts and prayers for those of you living in Bari and surrounding areas that maybe affected.

Peggy

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all your kind thoughts. The rail disaster at Bari looks awful but here in San Vito dei Normanni we are fine.
We have had a lot of rain but nothing like the Bari/Taranto areas. The bad weather does seem to miss this area.
We are lucky that our house is up a slight hill, so it is unlikely we would be affected by floods.
We are going to see friends in Ceglie/Ostuni today ...will let you all know what the roads are like but haven't heard that anyone is having problems at the moment in this area.
Our thoughts go to everyone in the two areas affected.

... scary picture on all the front pages today of the eurostar train...the engine stopped halfway across what should have been a bridge...thankfully on that one the train stopped in time....god knows how...and only 22 injured none serious..... sadly the road bridge tragedy claimed five lives as the car was on the bridge when it collapsed..... its a sad day for that area and i have much sympathy for those that face the awful clear up after floods.... bare in mind also all the farmers in the area who have had a bad year many of them struggling to cope after the snow and winds at the start of the year... and now this... good luck to all of you that live there...

When and where was the snow John ? We were over here in Jan/Feb and the locals said they hadn't had any snow to speak of for 8 years ?? I remember seeing on the news that Naples had it bad then and so did Abruzzo.

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]When and where was the snow John ? We were over here in Jan/Feb and the locals said they hadn't had any snow to speak of for 8 years ?? I remember seeing on the news that Naples had it bad then and so did Abruzzo.[/QUOTE]

Don't know about snow in Bari or on the Adriatic side, but in February there was snow up to two feet deep along the roadside all the way from Naples into Calabria. The roads were cleared very efficiently, though.
There was still a little snow on the mountains of Northern Calabria right into late May. Made the air wonderfully crisp.
rgds
Eddie B

Well I was in Ostuni Jan (twice), Feb and March and no snow, rained a bit as in does in all Italy. Johnny have you got the snow story mixed up? However I have found a website with ostuni in the snow but it was years ago, the same time that Turkey had snow, a rare event indeed!

Anyhow back to the torrential rain, is this last week? Is there anywhere on the web I can view this sad and tragic news? :(

[QUOTE=elainecraig]Well I was in Ostuni Jan (twice), Feb and March and no snow, rained a bit as in does in all Italy. Johnny have you got the snow story mixed up? However I have found a website with ostuni in the snow but it was years ago, the same time that Turkey had snow, a rare event indeed!

Anyhow back to the torrential rain, is this last week? Is there anywhere on the web I can view this sad and tragic news? :([/QUOTE]

This link is the [URL=http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23408237.htm]Reuters News[/URL] story. Haven't found anything else yet.

Goodness, I've just read the news, terrible, best wishes to everyone in Puglia.

Lynn, Alex are you ok?

Whats the land like, 3" in a night nora!

Gosh our villa of a thousands wells could be flooded, is there any extensive flooding in the area? Thats frightening, and I thought it was raining hard the week before last. :confused:

...rainews24 .....carries the pictures and stories in italian.... the story about the road bridge collapse is a bit more than sad.... a whole family in ten cars were out for the day....the first two cars passed over the bridge safely.... the third was on it when it collapsed and the other six manage to stop... its hard ro know what their thoughts must have been...

the snow... in puglia at the beginning of this year the farmers were complaining of the snow and the damage to the crops... .. i presume in the area inland where it joins up to the molise...and there are more hilly areas.... . there were pictures from puglia showing those sort of plastic growing tunnels all collapsed under it.... your right about the snow in abruzzo ...but again if you speak to locals even the amount here was rare ... again like other comments on snow it was always cleared quickly..... and if you spoke to anyone on the coastal plain they will tell you the same story ...havent seen it in years..... and is one of the main reasons skiing is not as popular here say as in the alps....it cannot be guaranteed to come or to last.....

as regards the two bridges collapsing the story has now gone from the tragedy to the reason.... the head of the civil protection here in italy has visited the area.... and as pointed out in the pictures for all to see the reason has become quite obvious.... they had infilled behind the bridge supports with gravel not reinforced concrete and now a big investigation is starting.... and no doubt a lot of the bridges will now be checked... the train picture is almost the most scary though.... to see the lead engine of the eurostar train sitting on two rails and nothing else over an empty space ... as i say whoever was driving the thing did more than a good job to stop it ....

Hello,
am sending my heartfelt thoughts and prayers to everyone who has been affected by the flooding in the Bari area of Puglia.
I do hope that all our members on this site who live in that area are ok?

Alex and Lynn, I am glad to hear that you are alright :)

Francesca

OMG! So sad to hear of the latest tragedies...

On breakfast tv this morning (around 8 am before we headed off to work) they only mentioned preparations in Florida for their latest hurricane (poor sods). They'd even sent a reporter in the area to await the storm! But not a word about another European disaster.... like so many recently, wild fires, floods etc, they get overlooked. Sadly. Got to watch Euro News in the am from now on...

Was raining quite a lot here over the weekend and on the news last night they mentioned that some areas of south-western England could have flood warnings soon too.

What's going on?? :(

Fingers crossed that all Puglia folks are well and safe.

Stephanie

BTW, found this link on searching ... [url]http://uk.news.yahoo.com/23102005/323/five-die-storms-lash-southern-italy.html[/url]

Yes, after I read your kind messages this morning, I went onto all the Uk news sites I could think of on the internet and I have Radio 2 on via internet as well....not a word about our tragedy in Puglia...all about Hurricane Wilma...the only one who seemed to cover it was Reuters...very strange.....wanted to see what was being reported in Uk so we could contact family to reassure them we were OK......they didn't know what i was talking about !!!!!!!! :rolleyes:
You are right John...that picture of the train was horrendous...that driver deserves a medal ......and the builders need locking up !.....awful reminders of the UK derailments...always boils down to money and someone cutting corners no matter where it is in the world.

Another dreadful tragedy, this time much closer to home.
Our thoughts go out to those so dreadfully involved.
Hope that all forum members living in the effected areas of Puglia and Sicily are OK.