Friday, October 28, 2011

News from Cinque Terre

I heard from Christine who manages the B&B where we stayed in Manarola. Both of her emails follow: 

Dear Ann,
Thank you for writing to check on us.  All of us in Manarola, Riomaggiore and Corniglia are safe and were incredibly fortunate, as there was only minor damage in our villages from the storm.  The situation in Vernazza and in the old town of Monterosso is tragic.  They have been without water, electricity, gas and telephone service since Tuesday.  The situation is particularly difficult in Vernazza, as it is now only accessible by sea.  My husband went there today by boat with a group of volunteers from Manarola, to bring supplies and help with the cleanup.  He said that the conditions there are even worse than we had imagined.  The heavy rains caused a huge landslide at the top of the village, which diverted the river there onto the main street of the town.  The river brought with it mud and debris which now almost completely covers the main floor of the buildings all along the main street.  Several people are unaccounted for, and nearly all of the businesses in the town have been destroyed.  The cleanup efforts will likely take months, but the people of the Cinque Terre are very resilient, and are determined to recover from this terrible tragedy.  Thanks again for your concern.
Kind regards,
Christine and Family
Carugiu B&B

Dear Ann,
Thank you for the link to your blog.  You are welcome to include my e-mail.  Your pictures are beautiful!
My husband and I went to Vernazza by ferry today to help pump water from a friend’s house, but only residents were allowed to get off there,  so we dropped the pump off and continued along the coast.  The sea is filled with debris, but the mud that turned the water from blue to brown has started to settle.  There are numerous emergency crews working in Vernazza and Monterosso, and electricity has been restored.  Heavy equipment has been brought in by boat to remove the incredible amount of mud in the streets.  The Italian government has declared a state of emergency, so special funds are now available for cleanup and relief efforts.  Support has been pouring in from around the world, and is greatly appreciated by the locals.  Our communities are working very hard to return to normal as soon as possible.
Kind regards,
Christine

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update, Ann!

TimInMich said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TimInMich said...

Yes, thanks for posting that, Ann. It's so interesting to have a personal vantage on it. I'm glad the people at your B&B were okay. BTW, are they Italian? How's their English? I ask because I keep running across (on the web only) B&B's run by Brits here, there, and everywhere.
(My previous comment was the same as this but with a spelling error. I hate that. But I couldn't easily figure out how to edit the comment. Tips?)

Ann Finkelstein said...

TimInMich: The Carigiu B&B is run by an Italian couple. Their daughter-in-law, Christine, is originally from Montana. She interacts with non-Italian speaking tourists.

I have no clue how to edit comments after they are posted.