Venice Sinks Under High Waters
Date: 01-Nov-04
Country: ITALY
Officials said more than 80 percent of the city was flooded, leaving tourists and townspeople scrambling over planks to cross St Mark's Square with its famous five domed basilica.
Flooding is a constant enemy of the fragile art city, with every new incursion damaging its medieval and Renaissance palaces. Officials on Sunday railed against decades of delay to a plan to build underwater barriers against the sea. "My feeling is rage and recrimination for those who have wasted years and years before starting the work," Giancarlo Galan, chairman of the Veneto region, told Ansa newsagency.