Huge landslide cleaves off the edge of a town in Sicily and forces the evacuation of 1,500 people

ROME -- Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday toured a southern town in Sicily where days of heavy rains from a cyclone triggered a massive landslide that cleaved off the town's edge, collapsing houses and forcing the evacuation of over 1,500 people.

The area of the landslide spanned 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) and civil protection crews created a 150-meter-wide (150-yard-wide) “no go zone.” At the edge of Niscemi, some cars and structures had already tumbled 20 meters (yards) off the cliff while other homes remained perched perilously on the edge of the continuously shifting ground.

Authorities warned that residents with homes in the area, facing the city of Gela on Sicily’s southwestern coast, will have to find long-term alternatives to moving back since the water-soaked ground was too unstable.

“The entire hill is collapsing onto the plain of Gela,” civil protection chief Fabio Ciciliano said. “To be honest, there are houses located on the edge of the landslide that obviously can no longer be inhabited, so we need to work with the mayor to find a permanent relocation for these families.”

The federal government included Niscemi in a state of emergency declaration on Monday for several southern regions and set aside an initial 100 million euros ($120 million), though Sicilian regional officials estimated on Wednesday the overall damage at 2 billion euros ($2.4 billion).

Meloni took a helicopter tour of the landslide area and met with local and regional officials at the town hall but didn't immediately comment.

Located just inland from Gela, Niscemi is no stranger to landslides. The town was built on layers of sand and clay that become particularly permeable in heavy rain and have shifted before, most recently in a major 1997 landslide that forced the evacuation of 400 people, geologists say.

“Today, the situation is repeating itself with even more significant characteristics: the landslide front extends for about 4 kilometers and directly affects the houses facing the slope,” warned Giovanna Pappalardo, professor of applied geology at the island's University of Catania.

The latest landslide, which began on Sunday with Cyclone Harry battering southern Italy, has revived political mud-slinging about why construction was allowed on land which, because of its geological makeup, has a high risk of landslides.

The center-right regional president of Sicily, Renato Schifani, acknowledged such questions were legitimate. But he noted he had only been in office for a few years and said the main issue was an institutional response to help residents immediately affected.

The opposition center-left Democratic Party leader, Elly Schlein, meanwhile, proposed Meloni's government reallocate 1 billion euros approved for its controversial bridge from Sicily to the Italian mainland and direct it toward storm-hit regions, since the bridge project is currently tied up in court challenges.