... it is not and it is considered a natural disaster at this point, affecting several small towns and villages and the danger of getting bigger is real.
I often watch Italian news and used to be surprised to see the Carabinieri presenting the weather forecast. In case you're not familiar with Italy's geological and geographical situation, they have everything one needs. They have seas, mountains and all reachable in a couple of hours, no matter where you are located. These natural beauties come at a price though.
The country is often dealing with avalanche during winter, landslides, flood, hurricanes that destroy an enormous amount of woods, earthquakes, erupting volcano, you name it. I don't have actual data to back this up, but I think it's safe to say they are among the countries with the most potential natural disasters. Knowing this, you understand why the army is controlling the meteorology service and monitoring everything from seismic moves to snow accumulation and water levels.
Knowing what to expect gives you the time to prepare for the worse and take the necessary measures to limit damage and avoid a disaster. You would think this is what happens and most likely it happens in most cases, but not in the case I mentioned you a week or two ago.
I'm even more shocked today than I was a week or two ago, when the news broke and still can't wrap my head around about how things could get to this point. For those of you who have not read my previous posts, here it is, you should read these two posts: Financially Ruined In A Blink Of An Eye and Maybe There's Hope.
In hind site, that was nothing more than hopium, as the situation is even worse. I thought once authorities step in, they can stop and reverse the process of destruction, but you can't play with nature and this case proves it.
At the time of writing, the mine collapsing is a question of when not if. It's going to happen and then ... all hell will break lose.
Experts from 5 European countries are coming to evaluate the state of the mine using underwater drones (as the mine is totally flooded, no one can go in) and then make a plan to see what can be done. They are already working on the creek, which needs to be deviated to avoid further flooding, but the destruction is done.
A part of the families living in the area have been evacuated, due to the flood. Tap water is not drinkable anymore, specialists warn. The salt level in the water is double and can be fatal. We have an emergency app, that can warn those in the area, whenever there's danger. Specialists have warned locals that tap water can't be drank, but can be used for household needs. Good luck with that I say. Try to use salty water for your washing machine, dishwasher or heating system and see what happens.
Around 50k people are in this situation, many of which live in villages, with livestock and garden. Local authorities are distributing clean water every day, each person has 5L for free, as far as I know, but every human being needs more, if you care about your personal hygiene and want to keep your home clean, not to mention your livestock and garden.
Some details no one from the layman has thought is what happens next? Flood happens all the time, everywhere in the world. It is a huge problem, accompanied by losses, both human and material losses, but here the problem is bigger.
Even if they manage to get the water out of the mine, what are they going to do with it? The level of salt in the soil in that area is 10x more than normal and this is just the beginning. Gardening in these condition is out of question and God knows when the level of salt is going to go back to normal and how.
Take one or two kilos of salt and pour two glasses of water on it, see what happens. This is kind of what happened when the water flooded the mine and got the the salt hills. Salt does not act like soil. It melts and that's it. In these conditions, you can imagine the craters created by the water and those are just the visible ones. No one knows what holes are laying below the surface and when roads or buildings are going be swallowed by water.
There was a case a couple of decades ago, when a similar mine was flooded and when the ceiling of the mine crashed, as a consequence, a whole supermarket was swallowed by the water.
If the mine crashes, the move is going to create some waves, like a small tsunami, which will create more damage.
That's the photo of a swimming pool that is next to the mine and used to be very popular. Those who spent 8 hours underground in the mine, enjoyed the rest of the day next to the pool. These places are now empty and not only most if not all the business are bankrupt, there's a huge chance these beautiful inns, swimming pool and restaurants to be swallowed by water or huge holes.
The size of the area affected by the salty water is huge. There's a chance fish from different rivers to be affected as well.
Knowing all these details make you think how can some people sleep at night, when this disaster could have been avoided. All this mess could have been avoided and price of it would have been a fraction of what the government has to spend now on fixing things, not to mention the loss the affected families are suffering.
Would be glad to know the biggest danger is over, but it's not.
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