Another flood, another set of lives devastated, and as the waters recede today, Italy's anger is rising. There was nothing natural about this disaster, nor its predecessors. The death toll has climbed to 28, another 17 are feared dead, thousands are homeless, industry is reeling, and man is mostly to blame. For six days rainstorms ravaged Italy's northeast and the Swiss Alps, turning streams into rivers, rivers into torrents and streets into canals. Rescue workers are digging through mud and debris for corpses while tens of thousands await the all-clear to return to destroyed villages.
Damage is estimated at hundreds of millions of pounds.
Though numb with shock, Italians know better than to call it an act of God. Sharing responsibility are politicians, civil servants, developers, farmers, businessmen and voters. In the past, swollen rivers drained harmlessly into fields that lined their banks. That was why they were called flood plains. But farmers flattened, cultivated and smoothed the fields so the water surged into towns instead.