The body of Guerrina Skocaj, 83, who was missing in the collapse of her house in Brazzano, in the municipality of Cormons (Gorizia), was recovered by firefighters during the night .
The body was located shortly after 10 pm, but recovery operations were suspended due to bad weather that made it impossible to work safely, fearing further slope collapse.
Only when weather conditions allowed, before midnight, was the recovery carried out.
The body of the other missing person, 32-year-old German citizen Quirin Kuhnert, originally from Bavaria and long-time resident of Friuli Venezia Giulia, where he had taken over the food and wine business of a small village, has already been recovered. He died while trying to save his elderly neighbor from the landslide that was about to engulf their building.
Hundreds of cubic meters of mud and rock tumbled down from the San Giorgio hill: the area had been hit by a torrential downpour in the hours before, with approximately 300 millimeters of rain falling to the ground. This was an exceptional situation even for forecasters, who had only issued a yellow alert . As the minutes passed, the situation became dramatic. Quirin himself had posted a video on social media showing the steps of the church, adjacent to the building he had recently purchased, transformed into a torrent. After a sleepless night and with bated breath, the German citizen and his wife left the house, suspicious of the noise coming from the hill behind them.
Witnesses who spoke to the survivors reported that a sort of roar could be clearly heard, while the gate of the last house in the row, made up of three separate dwellings, seemed to give way under the pressure of the water and mud .
Quirin and another man, who lived in the section of the house facing the street, rushed to alert the neighbors and rescue them. They managed to save a woman who lives in the main house—who ran away barefoot and in her pajamas as soon as she was startled awake— but when they reached the old woman's front door, the mudslide hit them. Quirin was literally swallowed up—he was apparently at the top of a ladder to reach the first-floor window—while the man who was with him was thrown to the ground by the shock wave and dragged for meters . He was pulled from the rubble several minutes later with a crushed pelvis and a fractured femur; however, his generosity helped save at least one of his neighbors. He is in hospital, suffering from shock, but his life is not in danger.
Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) has declared a regional state of emergency, and Governor Massimiliano Fedriga chaired the Emergency Committee this afternoon. One million euros has been allocated for initial emergency relief efforts. Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci has signed the national mobilization agreement that will allow other regions to support Friuli Venezia Giulia. Giorgia Meloni spoke to Fedriga by phone to receive an update on the situation. According to sources at Palazzo Chigi, the Prime Minister "expressed her closeness to the affected communities and offered heartfelt thanks to all the women and men involved in the rescue operations."
A night not to be forgotten in the Gorizia area left several villages under water: Versa, a community of just over 300 inhabitants, was evacuated as a precaution due to widespread flooding and the blackout that affected the area. The evacuees were housed in the municipal gym. Among other things, the Michelin-starred restaurant of chef Antonia Klugmann was also flooded. Firefighters from the four regional fire departments of Friuli Venezia Giulia, with support crews from Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, and Lombardy, carried out hundreds of interventions. No injuries were reported, although some people were treated for mild hypothermia and bruises during the hectic moments when they climbed onto the roofs of their homes, only to be rescued by law enforcement helicopters.
(Unioneonline/D)