A tornado with winds up to 140kph stuck Venice on Monday. Through it missed the city centre, several islands near the Adriatic Sea sustained significant damage.
The twister entered the lagoon from the sea, allowing people on Lido to take stunning amateur photos and videos of the low, dark twister, before it hit Sant'Elena, Sant'Erasmo, and Certosa, all near the mouth of the lagoon.
In 1970, when the last tornado hit Venice, a vaporetto sank killing 21 people. During this incident, however, there were no casualties and only one reported injury--a young boy who was hit by falling debris on Sant'Elena. On Sant'Elena, fifteen 9-and-10-year-old students were trapped when a tree fell in front of the entrance to their boathouse.
On the Island of Certosa, nearly 1.000 trees were uprooted. While recently constructed buildings were largely unharmed, a medieval cloister was hit badly and many residents of Sant'Erasmo were left without roofs over their heads. Residents' boats, particularly lightweight gondolas, were the hardest hit, with many ripped to shreds and dragged inland.
Sant'Erasmo, often called "the garden of the lagoon", also sustained significant damage to nearly 300 hectares of farmland producing vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and courgettes. Authorities estimate the tornado caused nearly 10 million euros of damage to homes, infrastructure, and farmland.
