More than a hundred soldiers from the Sassari Brigade, now engaged in Afghanistan, intervened in November in Olbia following the flood. In 57 days of operation, the Sassari operated with helicopters, construction equipment and special engineering vehicles, traveling over 20 thousand kilometers, moving 5400 cubic meters of bulky waste, distributing 7000 tons of humanitarian aid and several hundred hot meals. Departments of the Army Corps of Engineers intervened between January and February in the province of Modena, in the Treviso area and at Fiumicino. In Modena, following the flooding of the Secchia river, 190 soldiers of the genius of the railroad regiment, also employing rubber dinghies supplied to the Army, rescued those who had been blocked by water and allowed others to recover basic necessities. The military also helped to reinforce and monitor the divisions that had given in, to empty the water and make schools, houses, cellars and garages usable again. In the Province of Treviso, in Preganziol, Motta di Livenza, Mareno di Piave and Cimadolmo the water scooping machines of the genius worked until yesterday to lower the level of the water that invaded the houses at Fiumicino, in Isola Sacra, almost 200 engineers with 39 vehicles and nine dewatering pumps operated continuously for ten days, at the request of the mayor, to empty the houses invaded by water and to provide the displaced persons with food and basic necessities. Thanks to the intervention of a team of Army doctors and nurses, basic medical care was also guaranteed to the population. Besides 100 Paratroopers of the Folgore Brigade were called to intervene, twice in fifteen days, on the Medicean embankment in the center of Pisa, to raise with bulkheads and reinforce with sand bags the banks of the Arno which threatened to overflow. In the province of Belluno struck by exceptional snowfall, more than 140 military and 45 vehicles intervened. Among these 4 BV206, special tracked vehicles, born to operate in extreme and snowy climates with which the most isolated houses have been reached to recover people and distributed kinds of comfort. The military reached thirteen municipalities in which they restored the roads, cleared the main rolling stock and, thanks to the intervention of a team of rock climbers, freed the roofs of public buildings that were in danger of collapsing from the snow.
Source: General Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army - Public Information and Communication Office - Sz. PI
