12 storm deaths in Sicily, illegal building blamed

(ANSA) - Palermo, November 12 - Thunderstorms caused 12 more storm deaths in Sicily at the weekend bringing to 32 the Italy death toll since the extreme weather started battering the country 10 days ago.
    Nine people from two families including two small children died in a deluge of water and mud when a river broke its banks at Casteldaccia in Sicily, local sources said.
    They were living in a building that had been built illegally, the sources said.
    Another three people weer killed across the southern Italian island at the weekend.
    There is an orange weather alert Monday in Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna and Lazio. Premier Giuseppe Conte announced one billion euros in funding to fix "hydrogeological instability" across the length and breadth of Italy.
    Interior Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini asked for 40 billion.
    Meanwhile the centre-left Democratic Party blamed many of the deaths on amnesties on illegal buildings over the years, some of them voted for by the League.
    Salvini retorted that "salon environmentalism" was to blame, preventing trees from being cut down and water courses altered to stave off risk.
    On Monday Premier Conte said before leaving for Algiers: "I will speak with the Algerian prime minister about Sicily, where I went yesterday after the violent wave of bad weather, which caused many, too many deaths".
    It was also announced that the nine killed at Casteldaccia will be buried in Palermo Cathedral on Tuesday.
    Meanwhile the Regional Administrative Court (TAR) of Palermo said the villa that housed the victims should have been demolished. Economy Undersecretary Massimo Garavaglia said funds to remedy hydrogeological instability would be included in the 2019 budget bill.
    Environment Minister Sergio Costa said "we need a fast norm to demolish illegal and dangerous buildings." "A special group will study the problem," he said.
    "Illegal building has a very old history in Italy," he said.
    Costa also said the government's ministers were working hard to try to allocate EU funds to tackle the emergency.
    Far north in Veneto, over one billion euros of damage has been done and whole forests have been flattened by high winds.
    Veneto Governor Luca Zaia has asked for a state of calamity to be declared, as has Liguria Governor Giovanni Toti on the other side of Italy.