Rescuers battle swollen rivers in Italy

A shopkeepers begins cleaning up outside his premises in Turin

MANTUA, Italy -- Thousands of emergency workers and volunteers have been reinforcing riverbanks to try to prevent further flooding in northern Italy.

Hundreds of tonnes of soil and sandbags were dumped beside the country's longest river, the Po, near the city of Mantua.

Roads and railway bridges in the area have been closed and hundreds of people living near the city have seen their homes destroyed by the river -- still 7.5 metres (24 feet) above normal levels.

Days of severe flooding in north-west Italy have left 24 people dead, five missing and thousands more homeless.

At least another 11 have been killed in neighbouring Switzerland, with five still unaccounted for.

The waters which cascaded down the southern Alps, submerging villages and destroying roads, are now flowing east through Italy towards the Adriatic Sea.

A state of emergency has been declared in five Italian regions and on Friday the president of Veneto, which includes the city of Venice, asked for his area to be included on the list.

Forecasts of drier weather over the next few days have offered the first sign of respite for rescue workers.

But it is expected to be several months before many rail and road bridges are made safe because the floods have damaged structures and washed away foundations.

In Switzerland a fund-raising effort for the Alpine village of Gondo, devastated by a mudslide, raised 6.5 million francs ($3.6 million) within four hours of its launch, the organisers said on Friday.

Nine people have so far been confirmed dead in Gondo from the disaster, which wiped out one-third of the village near the Italian border.

Army experts continued to use explosives on Friday to blast through mud and rubble in the village in the search for four remaining victims thought to have been engulfed. Valais's official geologist must now decide when, or even if, the 130 surviving inhabitants of Gondo can return.

The special one-day collection, being run by the charitable arm of the state broadcasting network, is due to keep taking telephone donations until midnight.

A memorial mass is planned for Saturday in Domodossola, across the border from Gondo in Italy, and preparations are being made for children to go back to school after the autumn holidays end next week.

Flood waters engulf houses near the town of Cremona

Residents along the river Po's edge around Mantua rowed to their homes in small boats to collect possessions before returning to temporary accommodation in nearby schools and hotels.

Hundreds of people in the area are homeless.

"I feel terrible despair," said retired plumber Ciro Tosi, who has suffered flooding in previous years. "I have lost everything this time."

Authorities in both Italy and Switzerland said overall damage would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Early estimates have put the total damage caused by the flooding at six trillion lire ($2.6 billion) in the Lombardy region alone, which has not been as badly affected as Val d'Aosta or Piedmont.

"No insurance company is going to pay for this," said pensioner Paolo Ricci as he looked onto his sodden home nearby, which sat in over a metre of brown water.

The flooding has destroyed maize, rice and soybean crops in Italy, sending prices higher. Farmers said the high water would make it impossible to complete autumn planting of wheat and barley.

Prime Minister Giuliano Amato's cabinet has made available 150 billion lire ($65 million) to help the regions cope with the clean-up.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Explosives used in hunt for mudslides victims
October 19, 2000
Alpine floods death toll rises
October 18, 2000

Italian landslides

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