On Tuesday, December 8, Venice has been hit by high tides of up to 1.5 meters (5ft) after its flood barrier system was not activated as a result of mistaken forecasts. Weather bulletins had predicted high tide or acqua alta, rising to 1.2 meters – lower than the 1.3 meters level at which the 78 mobile barriers of the defensive system, called Mose, would usually be activated.
This was reported by The Guardian.
It is known that in Venice system of protective locks had to be activated if the indicators of water level show over 130 cm. However, due to a forecasting mistake, nobody expected the wave height to exceed 120 cm. Thus, the system was ton activated. The MOSE activation takes time, and by the time the water had entered the lagoon on Tuesday morning, completely flooding the narthex of St Mark’s Basilica, it was too late for the system to take effect.
“The situation is really bad as we weren’t expecting it,” said Matteo Secchi, who leads the activist group Venessia.com. “It’s frustrating as we thought that with Mose this kind of thing wouldn’t happen anymore, but instead we’re back to square one. It’s the same old problem,” Carlo Alberto Tessin, director of the Basilica of San Marco, stated.
Protective locks appeared in Venice only in 2020, the total cost of their installation exceeded 6.5 billion euros.