Acqua Alta - Venice, 1st December 2008. 1.56m

(Photo courtesy of Peter)

I have been in Venice during November December for the last 4 years and although there had been regular flooding when some portions of the city were under water it has always been manageable (for a tourist) because you know the times and you know the worst affected areas. This was different. The entire city was under water. Many people will have seen the images on television, but they only tell a partial story, and I found some of the news reporting comically inaccurate. A lot of the media didn't seem to realise that this was a high tide, and not for example river flooding as experienced in other parts of the world. The Guardian especially disappointed me by attributing it to "recent heavy rain" - I'm not an expert but I don't think heavy rain ever contributed much to a rise in sea level. And in fact there was no real heavy rain anyway.

The real culprit was a combination of strong winds with the morning high tide. The previous day this had been estimated at 1.15m which is quite high and will result in flooding in certain areas, but a lot of businesses know that they have the defenses to cope with this and can be prepared. No-one could really be prepared for this one. The customary flood barriers on doorways were overrun and wellington boots were useless unless they were thigh length fisherman's waders. The flooding itself was "only" at it's worst for 3 hours. In the evening I was able to meet my son and his girlfriend from the airport and we enjoyed a meal in a restaurant "as if nothing had happened".

That this was possible is a tribute to the Venetians, most of whom had to make a massive effort to clean out the premises and shift material out of reach of the floods if possible. For many it will have cost a lot of money and destroyed a lot of goods and possessions. I was told that insurance and the government will not help. Nonetheless we were met with friendliness and a certain amount of philosophical resignation in the days that followed. Hats off to the Venetians I say.

You might wonder why I have no photos of my own. Unwisely I had left the apartment that morning only with the view camera, and I wasn't too excited about setting it up in 3 feet of water.