On October 29, 2018, there was water on plenty of floors. The tide wouldn’t have been all that high if the waning moon had been in charge of the weather, but the wind took over, reaching gusts of some 70 km/h (45 mph). The scirocco, or southeast wind, was what really brought the water home.
The media was flooded (sorry) with dramatic images of not one, but two “exceptional” high tides. “Exceptional” is the official term for any height over 140 cm above mean sea level (we got 156 cm at about 3:00 PM, 148 cm at about 11:00 PM). And, as Lino and I know from our experience ten years ago, 150 cm is the limit of the top step leading into our apartment. Therefore we had already gotten busy preparing our humble dwelling for this uninvited guest.
So the water came in but, in the time-honored way of the tide, it also went out. And I — along with everybody in the city at street level — can tell you that while “water on the ground” (as the common phrase here expresses it when the quantities of water are more modest) provides dramatic photos, water on the floor is tiring. Everybody’s next day was dedicated to cleaning up. Which is also tiring.
Because many friends have so kindly asked how we are (or, by this time, how we were), here is a little chronicle of the event as we lived it. There aren’t many pictures of the water outside our house because, as you’ll see, we had plenty to take care of inside.
It wasn’t fun, and of course it created major problems for vaporettos, ambulances, and other necessary boats which wouldn’t have been able to pass under the bridges. But the water here wasn’t anything like the monstrous flooding of the rivers devastating the Veneto region, where epic rain had filled some rivers, such as the Piave, up to 30 feet above their normal height. Bridges overwhelmed, roads completely impassable, houses drowned up to their second-story windows. Unlike high tide, flooding rivers kill people, so no wailing from us. Our water meant I had to dust and wash things I certainly had no interest in dusting or washing, but everything is back to normal for us. Out in the countryside, they can’t even see “normal” on the horizon yet.
The next morning, I had some errands to do on via Garibaldi. As I expected, what I saw wasn’t a scene of destruction and lamentation but universal enforced housecleaning. The Venetian bucket brigade, with mops.
What a lot of extra work for you all. Your walk – or wade – round, armed with your camera is so typical, it seems to me, of people simply getting on with it and sorting it all out. No great wailing and moaning, as so many other areas might have. It seems true “Northern grit” coming to the fore – as a northerner in England, we tend to roll our sleeves up and get on with it, when the South on England wrings its hands…
But as you truly said, for many areas it was terribly so much worse.
Thank you again for chronicling so well the city that is like no other. I still look forward to getting back there later in this month … wellies packed, just in case!
If you want to read an epic tale of “Northern grit” in all its glory, read an account of how Gemona del Friuli rebuilt itself after the catastrophic earthquakes of 1976. Brought new meaning to “getting on with it.”
Thanks for this report, Erla. Have been anxiously awaiting your resurfacing since we got the first news of the high water last week. Glad to hear that you and Lino have emerged relatively unscathed but inconvenienced.
Alcohol to speed up evaporation! Cool. I thought it was only good for stupification ?.
Whew! We got out of Venice on Friday 26th October. Don’t know yet how the apartment at Dorsoduro fared. Missing the sarde in saor already.
A question about sanitation drainage, please Erla.In spite of our.many visits to Venice, we have never been sure whether some or all or none of the house drains are piped to the mainland, empty into the canals, or into pozzi neri. It didn’t seem appropriate to broach the subject over our coffee! Possibly you have dealt with this issue before?
Dreaming of a next visit already, but not in November.
No sewage is piped to the mainland. Either it is directed into a septic tank (“pozzo nero”) and is later pumped out into a “honey boat” and disposed of on the mainland, or it empties directly into the canal. In the mid-Nineties a law was passed requiring public buildings in Venice (hotels, restaurants, bar/cafés, offices, museums) to have septic tanks. Private dwellings may or may not have them.
As for the apartment in Dorsoduro, if the floor is below 150 cm. above mean sea level, water will have entered. I trust your landlady knows how to deal with it….
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What a lot of extra work for you all. Your walk – or wade – round, armed with your camera is so typical, it seems to me, of people simply getting on with it and sorting it all out. No great wailing and moaning, as so many other areas might have. It seems true “Northern grit” coming to the fore – as a northerner in England, we tend to roll our sleeves up and get on with it, when the South on England wrings its hands…
But as you truly said, for many areas it was terribly so much worse.
Thank you again for chronicling so well the city that is like no other. I still look forward to getting back there later in this month … wellies packed, just in case!
If you want to read an epic tale of “Northern grit” in all its glory, read an account of how Gemona del Friuli rebuilt itself after the catastrophic earthquakes of 1976. Brought new meaning to “getting on with it.”
I’ll seek it out immediately. Thanks.
May I link to your blog?
Yes indeed, thanks for asking.
Thanks for this report, Erla. Have been anxiously awaiting your resurfacing since we got the first news of the high water last week. Glad to hear that you and Lino have emerged relatively unscathed but inconvenienced.
Alcohol to speed up evaporation! Cool. I thought it was only good for stupification ?.
Which makes one wonder why alcoholics without a drink are said to be drying out.
Whew! We got out of Venice on Friday 26th October. Don’t know yet how the apartment at Dorsoduro fared. Missing the sarde in saor already.
A question about sanitation drainage, please Erla.In spite of our.many visits to Venice, we have never been sure whether some or all or none of the house drains are piped to the mainland, empty into the canals, or into pozzi neri. It didn’t seem appropriate to broach the subject over our coffee! Possibly you have dealt with this issue before?
Dreaming of a next visit already, but not in November.
No sewage is piped to the mainland. Either it is directed into a septic tank (“pozzo nero”) and is later pumped out into a “honey boat” and disposed of on the mainland, or it empties directly into the canal. In the mid-Nineties a law was passed requiring public buildings in Venice (hotels, restaurants, bar/cafés, offices, museums) to have septic tanks. Private dwellings may or may not have them.
As for the apartment in Dorsoduro, if the floor is below 150 cm. above mean sea level, water will have entered. I trust your landlady knows how to deal with it….