Venice braces for MORE flooding with water levels set to reach five feet

An eager selfie-hunter got more than he bargained for when he fell into deep water trying to take a picture of Venice submerged in flooding.

The tourist could be seen in footage posted on social media armed with a selfie stick and walking confidently towards his destination, before dropping into the canal as the floodwater suddenly got deeper.

As he fell up to his neck in the high tide, the Santa hat-wearing man called out to his friend who was in safety on higher ground, before slowly making his way back to the shallower water covering the street.

The Italian city was submerged by floods for the second time in a week today as storms and winds brought fresh misery to a city facing a billion euros’ worth of damage.

St Mark’s Square was closed to tourists after floodwaters overran the historic plaza this morning, while shops and hotels were invaded by water once again.

The crypt of St Mark’s Basilica was also flooded again today after the church suffered ‘irreparable’ damage earlier in the week. 

Water levels reached more than five feet on Friday, lower than Tuesday’s peak but enough to leave 70 per cent of the city under water. 

Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said the city had been ‘destroyed’ and warned that the cost of the damage had already reached a billion euros (£850million) before the latest floods on Friday.   

Italy’s government declared a state of emergency last night and vowed that a long-delayed flood protection barrier would finally be built by 2021.  

Right-wing politician Matteo Salvini was also in the city today to inspect the damage after his right-wing rival Silvio Berlusconi paid a visit yesterday.   

Sirens wailed across Venice from the early morning hours today, warning of the impending high tide.

‘We have been in this emergency for days and we just can’t put up with it any more,’ said Venetian resident Nava Naccara. 

Mayor Brugnaro said he was forced to ask police to close off St Mark’s Square, which has been flooded for the most of the week. 

Tourists hoping to see the plaza were left disappointed this morning as they were kept behind a police cordon because of the flooding.  

‘Venice was destroyed the other day,’ the mayor said. We’re talking about a billion in damage and that’s just from the other day, not today. ‘This is a state of emergency, but we are managing it.’ 

‘Venice is the pride of all of Italy,’ he added in a statement today. ‘Venice is everyone’s heritage, unique in the world. Thanks to your help, Venice will shine again.’  

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte, who has called the flooding ‘a blow to the heart of our country’, said last night that an official state of emergency had been approved. 

Venice residents will be eligible for €5,000 in government aid while restaurant and shop owners could receive up to €20,000 apply for more later, he said.  

High waters brought misery to local residents – stranding boats and gondolas, battering shops and hotels and leaving many of the city’s squares and alleyways deep underwater. 

However, some tourists have revelled in the sight of a flooded Venice, taking selfies in the squares and wading through the streets and alleyways in colourful waterproof overshoes. 

French tourist Manon Gaudre, 22, said seeing Venice under water was a ‘unique experience’.

‘The damage it’s causing to monuments and the people is worrying,’ she said, wondering if climate change was to blame.   

Austrian visitor Cornelia Litschauer, 28, said she felt mixed emotions seeing the famous St Mark’s Square half-submerged. 

‘For the tourists it’s amazing, it’s something to see. But for the people who live here it’s a real problem,’ she said. ‘It’s strange. Tourists are taking pictures but the city is suffering.’ 

‘It’s shocking to see this, having water up to your knees,’ said Mexican tourist Oscar Calzada, 19.

‘You have to be here to believe it and hopefully it won’t happen again, it’ll only be once in a lifetime type thing.’ 

The Locanda Al Leon hotel said its bookings had suffered from the flood, with some guests cancelling their rooms after seeing images of Venice underwater. 

The basilica was closed to tourists yesterday as were many other Venice highlights including the Fenice Theatre and the Ducal Palace.  

The mayor of Venice has blamed climate change for the disaster but is was also anger among Venetians at the corruption which has held up the flood barrier project. 

‘We need to be resilient and adapt. We need a policy that looks at the climate through completely different eyes,’ Italy’s environment minister Sergio Costa said yesterday.   

Luca Zaia, the premier of the Veneto region, told Italian media that the city was ‘faced with total, apocalyptic devastation’ after Tuesday’s floods. 

‘I’m not exaggerating – 80 per cent of the city is under water, the damage is unimaginable,’ he said at the peak of the flooding.     

Today authorities will continue to assess the damage to Venice’s cultural treasures and infrastructure.  

Damage included five ferries that serve as water buses, a critical means of transportation in a city with no road or rail links except to the mainland. 

Heavy rainfall across Italy, combined with high tides that were pushed into Venice by southerly winds, brought chaos to a city built on canals. 

Water poured through wooden boards that shop and hotel owners have previously placed in front of doors to hold back water.    

One person, a man in his 70s, was electrocuted when water entered his home on the barrier island of Pellestrina. Another fatality was also reported in the city, although it was not clear if the flood waters were directly responsible for his death.   

The mayor said the floods were ‘the effects of climate change’ and demanded that a long-delayed barrier protection project ‘must be finished soon’.  

The so-called ‘Moses’ plan involves 78 moveable gates under the sea that can be raised to protect Venice’s lagoon during high tides.

The project began in 2003 but has been plagued by corruption and rising costs and there is no completion date in sight.  

In addition, a recent attempt to test part of the barrier caused worrying vibrations and engineers discovered parts had rusted.  

‘They’ve done nothing, neglected it. It doesn’t work and they have stolen six billion euros. The politicians should all be put in jail,’ said local Dino Perzolla, 62. 

Zaia, the regional governor, told Italian TV that the barriers were almost complete, but said it was not even clear if they would work against this week’s intense flooding. 

The city of canals is home to a mere 50,000 residents but receives 36 million global visitors each year.  

Italian environment minister Sergio Costa blamed climate change and the ‘tropicalisation’ of violent rainfall and strong winds.

‘This is what is happening more and more often in the Mediterranean,’ Costa said on Facebook. ‘Global warming will destroy our planet if we do not immediately reverse the direction.’ 

Professor Nigel Wright, an expert in flood risk management at Nottingham Trent University, said the high water levels were a ‘double whammy of an extreme high tide and the low pressure from a storm raising the sea level’.

‘With sea levels rising this is likely to become more and more common causing untold damage to centuries-old buildings,’ he warned.  

‘The city has long planned for a defence system around the Venice lagoon, but such plans take a long time to plan, agree and implement,’ he said.  

The basilica’s sixth flood in 1,200 years was its fourth in the last 20, and the vestibule of the church was inundated with water yesterday. 

The flood sparked fears for the church’s collection of rich mosaics and artworks, and dirty water was swirling around marble tombs in the crypt. 

‘We’re talking about millions of euros worth of damage,’ said Carlo Alberto Tesserin, first procurator of the Basilica, who is the president of a team responsible for managing the historic site.

‘We said last year that the Basilica had aged 20 years in a high tide. It risks having aged much more than that in this one,’ he said. 

Venice archbishop Francesco Moraglia told a news conference that ‘the Basilica is suffering structural damage because the water has risen and so it’s causing irreparable damage, especially when it dries out in the lower section of the mosaics and tiling.’     

In addition, the electrical system at La Fenice theatre was switched off after floodwaters entered a service area, and firefighters tackled a blaze at the Ca’ Pesaro modern art gallery which was caused by a short circuit.  

One of Conte’s colleagues, education minister Lorenzo Fioramonti, also raised global warming as a likely cause and said ‘the consequences of climate change do not allow for delay’.  

The ‘acqua alta,’ or high waters, rose above six feet as the flood alarm sounded across Venice on Tuesday. 

‘It was unbelievable, the water rose so quickly,’ said resident Tiziano Collarin, 59, as he surveyed the damage. ‘Windows were blown out, there are those who have lost everything.’ 

Marina Vector, who was yesterday scooping buckets of water out of the shop she runs with her husband, said the flooding was ‘apocalyptic, enough to give you goosebumps’. 

‘The storm was so bad it broke the marble flood barrier out front. Nothing’s survived,’ she said.