The recent deadly and devastating storms in Italy have caused over three billion euros' worth of damage, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli said Tuesday.
"I think that the total bill of damages in the many Italian regions is higher than three billion euros," he said on a visit to Rapallo, damaged like Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure by mammoth waves.
Over 30 people were killed in the storms, which hit Veneto, Liguria and Sicily particularly hard.
The PO was being closely watched Tuesday as its level approached the dangerous mark.
Toninelli also called for a special commissioner to manage Italy's bad-weather emergency.
Visiting an area of Liguria specially badly hit by the storms that have devastated Italy and caused 32 deaths, Toninelli said "Liguria must be declared in a state of emergency".
He said "there must also be a commissioner who has the possibility of following simplified procedures, these are emergencies that we cannot deal with in an ordinary manner".
Toninelli said a cabinet meeting on Thursday or Friday would name the commissioner.
Eleven Italian regions on Tuesday requested a state of emergency over recent devastating storms that have destroyed forests and crops and killed over 30 people.
The regions are Veneto, Liguria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicily, Lazio, Sardinia, Calabria, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Trentino Alto Adige.
The requests will shortly be transmitted to the premier's office, sources said.
The owners of an illegally built Sicilian villa where nine people including two small children were killed by water and mud from an overflowing rain-swollen river Saturday were found guilty of illegal construction in 2010, it emerged Tuesday.
Antonino Pace and Concetta Scurria got a suspended sentence of three months in jail plus a fine of 23,500 euros, sources said. The sentence also ordered the demolition of the building at Casteldaccia near Palermo, which never occurred.
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