Florence averts disaster thanks to key floodgate

ROME: FLorence was out of danger due to the “decisive” role of a key floodgate that prevented the Arno river from bursting its banks after heavy rains, Italian authorities said Saturday.

About 250 people were evacuated from their homes Friday after the equivalent of a month’s worth of rain fell in six hours, flooding streets and swelling waterways in Tuscany, the region where Florence is located.

“The important flood peak of the Arno passed along the entire length without any critical issues,” Tuscany’s president, Eugenio Giani, wrote on social media Saturday.