November 16, 2019 | 2:50pm
Tourists and residents were let back into St. Mark’s Square in Venice Saturday, after it was closed because of flooding caused by exceptionally high tides.
Despite sunny skies, water was rising again in St. Mark’s Square and the forecast for Sunday was worse. Saturday at noon, the plaza was under 8 inches of water.
More than 6 feet of water engulfed 85 percent of the lagoon city last week, causing major damage to homes, businesses, stores and cultural sites, including St. Mark’s Basilica, the ninth century cathedral. Other architectural and historical treasures in the UNESCO World Heritage Site have also been hit hard, CNN reported. At least two people have died.
“Venice is once again being watched by the world and it needs to show that it can succeed and pick itself back up,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told local newspapers. On Wednesday, Brugnaro blamed climate change for the “apocalyptic” flooding.
The deluge has highlighted the fact that the Mose flood defense project remains unfinished. Mose is a series of movable barriers that can be raised when high winds and high tides combine to threaten to send “acqua alta” — especially high tides — rushing across the city, CNN reported.
Construction started on the multibillion-euro project in 2003, but corruption scandals, cost overruns and opposition from environmentalists worried about its effects on Venice’s delicate lagoon ecosystem have delayed its completion, according to CNN.
In a Facebook post, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte described the disaster as “a blow to the art of our country.”