Dry as tinder have been the forests of Portugal and Spain this year. Ditto for those in Bordeaux just a little further north in France, and thousands of civilians have been forced to evacuate.
The French have resorted to a (European) Union mechanism and asked participating states to send personnel to assist in extinguishing the fires for the persisting high temperatures predicted forced their hand.
The
Austrians have already responded and 76 trained firefighters and their
equipment, transferred by air, are already helping. The Deputy Governor
of Lower Austria, Herr Stephan Pernkopf, reminded citizens of Austria's
largest forest fire in Hirschwang an der Rax in the autumn of last
year. At that time 115 hectares of forest were affected, in France it's about 6000 hectares -- that's an 'inferno'.
In addition to Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania and Sweden have sent help to France, which is grateful for it.
In
Italy, Lake Garda, the country's largest lake has seen water drop to a
15-year low, the River Poe, its longest, is down to 30 cm of water in
places and the area surrounding has been tinder dry as everyone waited
for some rain. And the River Doubs on the French-Swiss border has been
so dried up that the receding water left boats stranded on the river
bed. The drought has been one of the most severe in decades.
The relief from the drought finally came but unlike Portia's 'quality of mercy', it has not 'droppeth as a gentle rain beneath' but in the form of severe storms in the region causing floods and deaths in Austria, Italy and the French island of Corsica. These included both fishermen and holiday makers like an unlucky girl crushed by a tree falling at a campsite. Ending a nightmarish holiday, some 13,000 people had to be evacuated and given shelter in public buildings.
Falling
trees have caused casualties in Austria also. Two girls aged four and
eight were killed near a lake in Carinthia and three women in Lower
Austria. The local mayor said the area resembled a battlefield after
the storm.
And in Italy a man and a woman died in separate incidents in Tuscany from uprooted trees. Also in Italy, high winds blew cafe umbrellas across St Mark's square and dislodged brickwork from the basilica bell tower.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
