Landslides in Messina

 The disaster in the province of Messina goes to prove the instability and 'eyes wide shut' approach to living in Italy.   Over 70% of comunes in Italy have areas that are at very high risk of idrogeological disaster, and yet local councils and regions do very little to make the population aware.  In fact, they are probably colluding in the aggravation of an already unstable landscape by allowing building, not clamping down on abusivismo, deforestation and the rest.  Although Messina is a very high risk area, the obvious changes in climate are affecting the south of Italy much more than has been previously thought.  Last Thursday Messina had 300mm of rain in less than 4 hours - thats 12 inches of rain!  The weather centre at Rome foresaw the event, but didnt foresee the disaster.   It's not just an Italian problem - the UK for instance has allowed huge building on natural flood plains over the last 20 years - especially in Kent.   However, the landlsides last week in the messinese provide another salutory lesson.