ROME: Freak storms and flash flooding following last week´s heatwave in Italy claimed three lives this weekend, including a young woman caught up in a mini-tornado near Rome´s Fiumicino airport.

The 26-year-old woman was driving home at around 2:00 am Sunday when the mini-tornado lifted her car and sent it crashing against a railing.

The highly localised winds tore up trees and scattered debris across the zone it hit.

Further north, a 45-year-old Norwegian competing in an ultramarathon in the Dolomite Mountains died after being hit by lightning as he ran at 2,000 metres altitude on Saturday afternoon. And on Sunday, near Arezzo, south of Florence in the northern Tuscany region, a 70-year-old man died after his car got caught by flash-flooding.

The emergency services found his body in a mud-filled canal.

Coldiretti, Italy´s main agricultural organisation, said hail storms over the last 24 hours had caused millions of euros worth of damage across the country.

Worst hit was the Arezzo province in Tuscany, they said. Orchards, as well as fields of tobacco, sunflowers and corn were completely destroyed, they said. </s> Heavy Weather: Several Dead And Injured In Italy

Heavy rainfall and gusts in the Mediterranean cause seven dead and many injured.

The balance of the heavy storms with heavy rain and storms that affected much of Italy has worsened further. At least seven people were killed by trees, and more than a dozen were injured. On Sunday at least five people had died.

In the province of Frosinone, south of Rome, two people lost their lives on Monday when a tree fell on their car, Italian media reported. In Terracina in Lazio, in Naples and in Savona in Liguria, a total of four people died. Another person died in Feltre in the Dolomiti province of Belluno. On Sunday at least five people had died.

In the provinces of Belluno and Treviso, there were power outages. 160,000 households were affected. Floods and landslides were also reported in Carinthia’s neighboring region Friuli Venezia Giulia.

The bad weather front paralyzed the country from north to south. Schools and kindergartens remained closed in many regions, including Veneto, Liguria, Rome, and parts of Tuscany. Also on Tuesday, they should remain closed in many places, including in Rome.

The severe thunderstorms in the Mediterranean region also hit the Croatian Adriatic coast on Monday. The highways around the northern port city of Rijeka are closed for traffic for the time being due to heavy rain, according to media reports. Due to storms with gale-force winds, numerous ferry connections between Dubrovnik and Rijeka started from the mainland to the islands.

The state weather service issued warning in the morning for the entire Croatian coastal region of the highest level. Also for the hinterland at Gospic and Knin alarm was given in view of the approaching bad weather front. </s> The death toll from violent rainstorms battering Italy has risen to nine, officials said Tuesday.

Most of the country’s northern region remains under a red alert after catastrophic rains and severe winds pounded much of the country, resulting in downed trees, tidal flooding, and thousands left without power.

Venice has been inundated by floodwaters — the worst seen in the Italian city for at least a decade.

On Monday, the water rose to more than five feet above sea level at high tide, bringing three-quarters of the canal city under water.

“The exceptional wave of bad weather leaves us with a dramatic toll: nine dead, four serious injuries and one person missing,” said Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

The national fire brigade said it had intervened in 7,000 cases across the country and that one of its members died after being crushed by a tree during a rescue operation in a small town in the northeast Italian province of South Tyrol.

Authorities said Tuesday that a woman died in the north region of Trentino when her home was overcome by a mudslide and that a man was killed by a falling tree in the northeastern region of Veneto.

Two young people died in the south of Rome when a tree hit their car, and another person was killed in the nearby town of Terracina as winds brought down throngs of pine trees, according to CNN.

Among the victims, according to the news outlet, was a 21-year-old man who was struck by a falling tree while walking in Naples and a woman who died after being hit by debris blown off a building in the northern region of Liguria.

A man was also killed Monday while kite-surfing near the town of Cattolica on the Adriatic coast.

According to Italian media, nearly 200 people, tourists and hotel staff were stranded by heavy snowfall at Stelvio Pass, a mountain pass in northern Italy bordering Switzerland.

The weather was expected to improve Tuesday, “giving the country a truce,” according to an official from Italy’s Civil Protection Service.

Meanwhile, heavy snowfall in France has caused travel chaos and left hundreds of motorists stranded as winter arrived early on Monday.

Nearly 200,000 homes remained without power across the country Tuesday after snowstorms struck central regions Monday evening. </s> Fierce storms that have killed 18 people in Italy this week also razed thousands of hectares of forest in the country's devastated north, officials said today.

Trees covering the mountainsides in the Dolomites range were reduced to matchsticks, flattened by winds that tore through the Veneto region Thursday as storms killed five people in northern Italy.

"It's like after an earthquake," Veneto governor Luca Zaia said. "Thousands of hectares of forest were razed to the ground, as if by a giant electric saw."

A photo taken from a fire helicopter showing flattened forests in the Dolomites. Photo: Vigili del Fuoco

In addition, 160,000 people in the region were left without electricity, Zaia said, adding that parts of the Dolomites were "reduced to looking like the surface of the moon."

"We've been brought to our knees," he said.

On Thursday, storms in northern Italy killed two pensioners aged 74 and 73 when a tree fell on their car in the Aosta Valley. Another person fell into a river in the Brescia region and was dragged under by the current.

In the Alto Adige region, an 81-year old died after falling off the damaged roof of his Alpine cottage, while a 53-year old whose car was hit by a falling tree during bad weather on Monday died from the injuries.

These fatalities brought the total number of people killed during this week’s violent storms to 18.

Italy's civil protection agency described the weather lashing Italy this week as "one of the most complex meteorological situations of the past 50 to 60 years".

Severe flooding at St Mark's Square in Venice on Monday. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

Bad weather continues in many parts of the country, with rain and thunderstorms today in parts of Lazio, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and elsewhere.

Floods in Sicily have closed many roads and mayors have ordered schools, public parks, and underpasses shut.

Meteorologists predict heavy rain and storms throughout Italy this weekend.

Italian regions have been counting the costs of the storms over the past few days, particularly the six northern regions placed under red alert for several days.

Veneto and Liguria were among the regions worst affected, though bad weather struck every part of the country earlier this week.

The picturesque fishing village of Portofino near Genoa, a famed holiday resort on the Italian riviera, was only reachable by sea after the main road collapsed and an emergency path opened to let residents out was deemed too dangerous.

"It won't be easy or quick but we count on returning Portofino next summer to the millions of tourists who come to visit it," regional governor Giovanni Toti said.

The Genoa region alone had suffered tens of millions of euros worth of damage -- a price tag that could rise to hundreds of millions in the long term, he added.

Several towns in the province of Belluno were cut off after a landslide damaged a mountain road and repair efforts were hampered by the insistent heavy rains.

Venice was inundated by historic high water levels on Monday, leading to the evacuation of tourists from the centre.

READ ALSO: Veneto and Liguria count the cost of storms and flooding </s> ROME: The death toll from fierce storms battering Italy has risen to nine, civil protection authorities said Tuesday, as wild weather swept parts of Europe, leaving motorists and tourists stranded. Road were blocked and thousands of people were left without power in southern and central Europe, as rains and violent winds sparked flooding, tore trees from their roots and whipped debris into the air.

Thick snow has also cloaked French and Italian mountain regions, trapping scores of drivers in their cars and tourists in hotels. In Italy, where Venice was inundated by near-record flooding and ferocious storms drove high winds reaching up to 180 kilometres an hour in some areas, civil protection authorities announced a further four deaths, after confirming five people perished on Monday.

Authorities Tuesday reported a woman died when her home was engulfed by a mudslide in the northern region of Trentino, a man was killed in the northeastern region of Veneto by a falling tree, and a firefighter died during relief operations in South Tyrol. Elsewhere, a man was killed while kitesurfing on Monday near the town of Cattolica on the Adriatic coast, with the local press saying strong winds had blown him into rocks. </s> At least nine people have been killed and four were seriously injured as severe storms battered northern Italy.

Strong winds and heavy rain raised Venice's water level by 156cm (more than 5ft) - its highest in a decade.

Three-quarters of the lagoon city flooded during the exceptionally high tide. The level later receded.

Large swathes of the country have also experienced flooding, along with powerful winds up to 180kph (110mph).

Two people were killed when a tree hit their car near the town of Frosinone, south of Rome.

A woman lost her life when her home was engulfed by a mudslide in Dimaro in the Val di Sole valley, and a firefighter died after being hit by a tree in Alto Adige.

Falling trees also killed a man in the city of Terracina, south of the capital, and another in the Naples region.

A man died while kitesurfing near the town of Cattolica on the Adriatic coast after it was reported strong winds had blown his board into the rocks.

And a fisherman's body has reportedly been recovered from Lake Levico in Trentino after he went to check on his boat.

Italian media said around 170 people, tourists and hotel staff, were stranded by heavy snowfall at the Stelvio Pass on the Swiss border.

The wild weather, caused by a convergence of high tides and strong winds, forced caused schools to close, while Rome and several other regions halted classes due to the weather.

Officials closed major tourist attractions in Rome, including the Colosseum and the Forum due to severe weather.

The breakwater walls in the seaside resort of Rapallo were destroyed by fierce winds, allowing in a surge of water that toppled yachts over and inflicted heavy damage on the port area.

Italy's civil protection agency declared the highest level of alert in several regions, mainly in the north, where storms were expected to continue all day.

And the second highest level was issued for the central regions of Abruzzo and Lazio - which includes Rome.

Genoa's airport closed as authorities cleared the runways of debris carried by the storms.

In the northern, canal-ringed city of Venice, rain-soaked tourists were barred from St Mark’s Square.

The waters have only topped 150cm five times before in recorded history.

Tourists and residents alike donned waterproof boots to navigate the streets.

Venice frequently floods when high winds push in water from the lagoon, but Monday’s level was the highest since December 2008, according to Venice statistics.

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said a series of underwater barriers that are being built in the lagoon would have prevented the flooding. </s> The death toll from the fierce storms battering Italy has risen to eight, civil protection authorities said Tuesday, as heavy rains caused flooding. In addition to the five people confirmed dead on Monday, authorities reported another three deaths in the north of the country, including a woman killed when her home was engulfed by a mudslide and rocks, AFP reported. Six regions were on red alert on Monday due to a wave of storms, torrential rain and gales. The regions included Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Trentino-Alto Adige and Abruzzo, with gusts of wind reaching 100kph in some cases, according to ANSA. </s> Italy’s Civil Protection Agency has confirmed a German tourist died on Friday when hit by lightning in Sardinia while another person struck by lightning several days ago died in hospital. A spokesperson for the Agency said 17 deaths related to the destructive weather have so far been reported to it. Many of the victims have been killed by falling trees, with 14 million destroyed since the gales began. Areas all the way from the far northeast to Sicilly in the south west have been affected, with the worst damage inflicted in the northern regions of Trentino and Veneto.

This is the region around Venice - where villages and roads have been cut off by landslides. Several squares and pavements in Venice have been submerged in the highest floods the canal city has seen in 10 years. Angelo Borelli, head of the Civil Protection Agency, revealed Veneto had been hit by winds of up to 112mph, warning the situation there was “apocalyptic”. Luca Zaia, the governor of Veneto, warned the storms may have caused at least €1 billion worth of damage.

On Friday, weather forecasters warned the destructive weather is not going to give a rest to the ravaged country any time soon, with heavy rain and thunderstorms set to hit in the coming days. The civil protection has issued red alerts in Veneto, Venice’s region, which in the last days was submerged by the waters of the canal, swamped by the violent rains, flooding homes and shops. Orange warning for storms were issued in 12 Italian regions out of 22, including Tuscany and Lazio, regions were are situated, respectively, Florence and Rome. But the areas which suffered the most are all located in northern Italy.

In Bergamo, a city in the rich region of Lombardy, the public prosecutor’s office launched an investigation against unknown people to assess if the series of landslides that hit the nearby town of Vilminore di Scalve “cutting it to slices”, as said in local reports, could have been avoided. And more misery piled up for people living in the iconic Riviera in Liguria, Genoa’s region, where the airport had to be shut down after rocks and flooded debris crowded its runways. Liguria’s president, Giovanni Toti, asked the government to declare a state of emergency, saying the weather caused thousands of millions of euro in damages. The seaside city of Rapallo is still removing the dozens of large boats sunk after the collapse of the barriers of the Carlo Riva harbour. </s> Nine people have been killed in Italy as violent storms batter the Country for a third day, with several regions on high alert.

The breakwater walls in the chic seaside resort of Rapallo, in Northeast Italy, were destroyed by fierce winds overnight, allowing in a surge of water that toppled yachts over and inflicted heavy damage on the port area.

“The exceptional wave of bad weather leaves us with a dramatic toll: nine dead, four serious injuries and one person missing,’’ said Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

Italy’s Civil Protection agency said the last person to have been found dead was a surfer in the Adriatic sea town of Cattolica.

The agency on Tuesday declared the highest level of alert on several regions, mainly in the North, where storms were expected to continue all day.

An orange alert, the second highest on the scale, was issued for the central regions of Abruzzo and Lazio which includes the capital Rome where gale-force winds topped 100 kph.

Authorities in the lagoon city of Venice had barred access to the central St Mark’s Square, which was heavily flooded.

The national fire brigade said it had intervened in 7,000 cases across the country and that one of its staff had died, crushed by a tree during a rescue operation in a small town in South Tyrol.

Nonetheless, the main highways across the country were open, with closures only on secondary roads.

The weather was expected to improve from the late afternoon, “giving the country a truce’’ an official from the civil protection agency told Reuters.

Meanwhile, heavy snowfall across south-central France, with up to 40 cm (16 inches) falling in some towns and villages, has caused chaos on the roads and knocked out electricity to nearly 200,000 homes, authorities said on Tuesday.
Heavy storms across central Italy kill three people and cause damages. One death was caused by lightning, one by a tornado, and one by getting caught in a flood.