The teenager was killed when a tree fell on her tent during a scout camp near Brescia, after high winds and torrential rain overnight.
On Monday, a middle-aged woman died after also being hit by a falling tree in Lissone, north of Milan.
Meloni confirmed the two “tragic” deaths due to bad weather, and offered her thoughts to their loved ones on social media.
Milan and many areas in the north of the peninsula were also hit by heavy rains, strong winds, and hailstorms. These storms blocked several roads with trees and caused damage to homes.
While vacationing at Lake Garda in Italy, Giovanni reached out to RTL Info.be after witnessing an extraordinary hailstorm in Sirmione, a town in the province of Brescia, Lombardy. “Monday evening was apocalyptic, a disaster,” he reports.
The storm started around 9:30 pm on Monday. As Giovanni returned to his hotel, thunderstorms and hail began. “The hailstones were the size of tennis balls. All the vehicles outside were dented, not a single one was spared,” Giovanni recounts, still in shock.
Giovanni and other vacationers gathered on the hotel’s ground floor. “We helped the injured, as my wife is a first aider. She assisted a person who was injured in the hand because their windshield had exploded,” describes the tourist. Outside, it was impossible to walk or drive due to the severity of the storm.
Cleanup began swiftly: “The local people were already cleaning the outside with tractors because there were so many trees, all the branches had fallen,” Giovanni explains. Giovanni also saw his brother-in-law’s vehicle damaged by the hailstones. “He called the insurance, and the lady told him he called at the right time, as the center was already starting to get overloaded,” he concludes. He is now waiting for the tow truck and hopes to get a replacement vehicle.
Tragically, a 16-year-old girl lost her life during this violent storm in northern Italy. The victim was hit by a tree while participating in a scout camp in the province of Brescia in Lombardy. Milan and many areas in the north of the peninsula were also hit by heavy rains, strong winds, and hailstorms. These storms blocked several roads with trees and caused damage to homes.
A Delta Airlines flight from Milan to New York was caught in the storm shortly after takeoff and had to be diverted to Rome. The aircraft suffered damage. In Veneto, another person, also 16 years old, was seriously injured by a falling branch. Seven people suffered minor injuries.
Even as the north was drenched, the heatwave across the south persisted, with temperatures of 47.6 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania on Monday.
Firefighters on the island spent a night battling wildfires, one of which approached so close to Palermo airport that it shut down for several hours Tuesday morning. Italy’s Civil Protection Department on Tuesday reported “extensive fires” across the south, saying air support had been requested for nine incidents in Sicily, nine in Calabria and another in Sardinia.
“We are experiencing in Italy one of the most complicated days in recent decades -- rainstorms, tornadoes and giant hail in the north, and scorching heat and devastating fires in the centre and south,” said Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci. Writing on Facebook, he added: “The climate upheaval that has hit our country demands of us all... a change of attitude.”
