Cyclone Harry: red alert and disruption in Sardinia, Sicily and Calabria with record rainfall and winds over 110 km/h

Sardinia, Sicily, and Calabria in the eye of Cyclone Harry: a windstorm with gusts in excess of 110-120 kilometres per hour, heavy rainfall, and sea storms along exposed coastlines have forced the Civil Protection Authority to issue a red alert in the three regions that will remain in force for the next 24 hours. An emergency situation that is affecting coastal areas in particular, where several families have been forced to leave their homes because of the sea.

This is the effect of a low-pressure vortex between the Sardinia Channel and the coast of Tunisia, which has fully hit the major islands and Calabria. Accumulations of more than 300 millimetres are expected in less than 48 hours (more than it rains in three months) and waves offshore in the Ionian and lower Tyrrhenian seas of up to 8-9 metres, between 6 and 7 metres on the coasts of eastern Sardinia and the Ionian strip of Sicily and Calabria. The mayors of the main municipalities, from Cagliari to Olbia, from Palermo to Catania, from Catanzaro to Reggio Calabria, but also in several provinces in the three regions, have decided to close schools, universities, public offices, parks, cemeteries and sports facilities as a precautionary measure. Planned institutional appointments have also been cancelled. Difficulties in maritime connections: in Sardinia stop ships to the peninsula in Cagliari and Olbia and ferries to Corsica, access to the island of Caprera also closed. Found, and in good health, the two shepherds who had been missing since Monday morning following the flooding of the Margiani stream, at Urzulei in Ogliastra.

In Sicily, ferries to the Aeolian islands are blocked while in Calabria, in Catanzaro, seven families are isolated due to a landslide. The mayor of the same municipality has also opted to close the seafront. In the municipalities affected by the red alert, the deserted cities of the time of the lockdown have been seen again. All the municipal operational centres, the so-called Coc, have been activated while the Civil Protection of the three regions is constantly monitoring the evolving weather situation, in close contact with the mayors. In Sardinia, the severe wave of bad weather has been described by experts as 'a phenomenon never observed in recent times, especially on the south-eastern coast. It will be a crescendo until 20 January, and we do not rule out a tailspin on Wednesday as well," reports the Regional Councillor for the Environment Rosanna Laconi from the Civil Protection Decision Room.

Many Sardinian roads are closed to traffic: the SS 195 Sulcitana, between Cagliari and Capoterra, the provincial road 71 in Teulada and the state road 198 in Gairo, Ogliastra. Instead, in Torpè, in the province of Nuoro, dozens of families with houses along the banks of the Rio Posada, swollen by the rain and at risk of overflowing, have been evacuated. Water courses are under special observation and maximum attention is being paid to dams and reservoirs: in particular on the Flumendosa, Rio Stanali, Rio Cixerri and Gutturu Mannu.