From the early hours of this morning, aliquots of soldiers of the 4th genius regiment of the "Aosta" brigade promptly intervened at the request of the prefect of Palermo to restore traffic in one of the main road arteries of the city, after the extraordinary alluvial event that hit the Sicilian capital last Wednesday.
Specialized teams of the Army are at work with earthmoving vehicles at the via Lazio and via Michelangelo overpasses, which cut orthogonally via Regione Siciliana, under which floods have formed which involved hundreds of vehicles that were completely submerged by the abundant rainfall .
The Army vehicles (3 skid steers, 1 rotated backhoe loader and 4 Iveco SMH for inert loading) will have to remove thousands of cubic meters of mud that have deposited inside the road tunnels and tons of materials dragged by the fury of the water on the entire road bed.
The return to normal is expected by the municipal authorities by the weekend.
The Italian Army has been employed several times in recent years in relief activities for populations affected by natural events. The competition provided, from the earthquake in Abruzzo to bad weather emergencies throughout Italy, from the flooding of waterways in Tuscany to landslides caused by the hydrogeological instability in Calabria and Sicily, proved to be crucial both in the initial stages and in the subsequent normalization process and assistance.
These results were achieved thanks to the human resources and the intervention capacities of the Armed Force, but also on the basis of existing plans and agreements with the Civil Protection and with the other operational structures for emergency management.
Over the years, these predispositions have been the subject of a natural evolutionary process, which has developed over time on the basis of the experience gained and the evolution of the bodies, military and otherwise, interested in this specific function.
