New approach needed on natural disaster emergency - Pichetto

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 25 - Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto-Frattin on Wednesday said a new approach is necessary over hydreogological instability to act more quickly to prevent and respond to natural disasters.
    "The ministry of the environment and energy security agrees with the need for a new approach allowing speedier interventions for the hydrogeological emergency", addressing the Lower House after he was questioned by the opposition Five-Star Movement (M5S) party on a plan to reduce the impact of extreme weather events.
    Pichetto also said he was "close to the populations hit" by floods in recent days.
    A storm system hit the Emilia-Romagna region last week for the second year in a row, forcing people to leave their homes and schools to close.
    Unprecedented rain and storms also caused floods in the northern Veneto region as well as in the Marche and in Tuscany, where a five-month-old baby and his grandmother were reported missing near Pisa in the night between Monday and Tuesday.
    Search operations were still ongoing Wednesday to search for the pair, who were members of a German family vacationing in Tuscany. (ANSA).