Venice faces new exceptional flooding, but below peak

The Italian city of Venice is facing more intense floods on Monday while still recovering from the exceptional high tide that hit it in November, causing massive damage.

The tide peaked at 1.44 meters on Monday morning, lower than forecasters’ predictions of 1.50 meters. High tides are considered exceptional if they are above 1.40 meters.

The lagoon city is still counting the damage caused by the 1.87-meter-high tide on Nov. 12, the highest in more than 50 years.

The city mayor said total damages are estimated at around 1 billion euros, with houses, businesses and historic monuments severely hit.

“I’ve been living here for more than 50 years and never saw anything like that,” said Toto Bergamo Rossi, director of the cultural foundation Venetian Heritage. “It’s more than a month now, this is a prolonged emergency.”

Venetian hoteliers recently said they are facing a steep rise in the number of reservation canceled following the November flooding and called for correct information to be issued on the situation of the city, which restarted its businesses and activities immediately after the exceptional floods.