Rain eases as Italy, Switzerland battle floods

Floodwaters engulfed houses near the Northern Italian town of Cremona

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VENICE, Italy -- Forecasts of drier weather over the next few days have offered the first sign of respite for Italy's flood-stricken north-east.

The forecasts come after water levels in the country reached their highest point in more than 30 years.

But Italy's coastal region along the Adriatic remains on high alert as torrents of water continue to wash down from the southern Alps.

Civil protection officials and volunteers have used trucks and earth-moving equipment to reinforce riverbanks, including the River Po south of Mantua, with tons of earth after 24 people were killed and five left missing by severe floods in the northwest.

At least another 11 have died in neighbouring Switzerland, with five more reported missing.

Police have closed road and railway bridges around Mantua, which has been groaning under the huge pressure from the currents of the Po.

Engineers raised a 250-tonne bridge linking Rome and Venice, jacking it up to prevent it damming the raging floodwaters. Rail and road traffic between the two cities has been diverted through Verona.

A shopkeeper begins the clean-up process outside his premises in Turin, northern Italy.

It is expected to be several months before many rail and road bridges are made safe after the floods damaged structures and washed away foundations.

A fund-raising effort for the Swiss Alpine village of Gondo, devastated by a mudslide, raised 6.5 million francs ($3.6 million) within four hours of it 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.

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.

Residents along the river Po's edge near Mantua, about 120 km (75 miles) southeast of Milan, rowed to their homes in small boats to collect possessions before returning to temporary accommodation in nearby schools and hotels.

Hundreds of people are homeless around Mantua, although no casualties have been reported in the region after residents received warning of the approaching torrent.

Emergency services in Italy have evacuated around 32,000 people since weekend torrents gushing down from the Alps toward the Adriatic Sea swamped the River Po and its tributaries.

A state of emergency, already declared in the regions of Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and Liguria, was extended further south and east to the regions of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.

Rail traffic through the Simplon tunnel between Italy and Switzerland, which resumed on Wednesday, was suspended indefinitely because of a renewed danger of landslides above Domodossola in Italy, Swiss Federal Railways said.

In the Piedmont regional capital of Turin, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Interior Minister Enzo Bianco have been speaking to council officials and extending the condolences of the nation to the families of the dead.

"The spirit of cooperation has limited the damage which unfortunately has been very grave in terms of human life, production and infrastructure," Ciampi said.

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 yard of brown water.

Around Mantua, waters rose to almost 10 metres, higher than levels registered during devastating floods in 1951, officials said.

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.

Farmers have prepared many fields around the River Po for soft wheat sowings.

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.

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