Devastating floods in South Tyrol in October 1823

Appendix.

Natural events.

Floods in South Tyrol in the current month.

From the Puster Valley and the districts along the Adige and Trento, the saddest reports arrive regarding widespread and extensive devastation that has again occurred as a result of persistent and warm rain through the devastating overflowing of many mountain torrents, as well as the Adige, the Eisack, the Drava, and the Rienza.

In the Valsugana, in the very first days of this month, all of the numerous torrents caused great devastation to roads, bridges, and cultivated lands. However, the Maso torrent below Borgo surpassed all others in destruction; laden with an immensely large mass of debris of all kinds, it overflowed its banks, cut through and destroyed the road so that it even threatened to sweep away the bridge itself; the road was therefore closed for three days and could only be reopened for the most urgent needs through the greatest exertion.

Even more widespread, however, and of as yet incalculable damage to roads, bridges, and lands, is the devastation caused along the entire lower Adige as far as Bozen and in the Puster Valley by heavy rain that lasted almost uninterruptedly from the evening of the 11th until the 18th, accompanied by warm winds.

In the Puster Valley, this persistent warm rain swelled all the torrents and rivers, causing significant damage to roads and bridges. The bridge near Welsberg, which was fortunately saved during the events in August, this time fell victim to the floods.

The road from Brixen to Bozen was repeatedly blocked by the destructive torrents along the Kunterweg. In Bozen itself, the Eisack swelled so much that the water overflowed as far as the new shooting range and into Kapuzinergasse. The Talfer rose in its extraordinarily wide channel to such an extent that it almost topped the embankment walls.

Half an hour below Bozen, the Eisack broke through the large dike on the left bank, so that it now takes its devastating course through the finest vineyards and fields.

Below Neumarkt as well, the Adige dikes have been breached; similar events must have occurred in several other places down to Trento, as the road to that point is underwater to such a depth and over so many long stretches that mail service was completely halted for several days, and even now can only be carried out with great difficulty over roads that are substantially damaged everywhere. According to all reports, the Adige Valley from Bozen to below Trento presented the saddest sight; almost along its entire considerable length, the whole valley formed an uninterrupted lake. The height of the Adige and its valley-filling flood near Trento, combined with the violently raging Fersina, had not occurred in such a manner for several years. The latter broke through a weir below the Cornichio bridge, thereby causing great havoc to the post road and its bridge. The city of Trento was several times in great danger of being partially destroyed by this exceedingly dangerous torrent, and according to the latest notices of the 18th, the danger was not yet entirely averted, as the rain was still continuing violently at that time. The St. Lorenzo bridge was in constant danger of being swept away by the high Adige flood.

The Lavis stream (Avisio) breached its embankments several times on both sides, severely devastating the entire surroundings; even the market town of Lavis was in great danger on the evening of the 15th. With the swollen and wildly raging stream came large masses of timber from the inner valleys, which accumulated on the left side of the fine new arched bridge of Lavis and damaged the abutment of this bridge to such an extent that, should this wild flood continue flowing much longer, there is great concern for the preservation of this beautiful and costly structure.

According to reports from Roveredo, this extraordinary flood caused no particular damage up to the 15th at least, and it is merely noted from there that the Adige at Ravazzone in these days stood only 3 feet and 6 inches lower than during the well-known greatest flood of 1775.

This extraordinary volume of water of the Adige then flowed toward Verona, after sweeping away 4 houses in Castelnuovo. A third of this large city is underwater, in many parts up to the first floors. Communication is maintained partly over the roofs, partly by breaking through from house to house. Below Legnago, the Adige likewise made two major breaches. Similar devastation is said to have occurred along the Po.

The destruction, rarely widespread to such an extent, blocked almost all roads and severed all communication, so that the currently known damage seems to be only the smallest part of the actual damage that will emerge upon closer investigation; and the costs thereby caused to public works, although not yet calculable, will surely amount to many thousands of gulden.

These natural disasters extended to this side of the Brenner Pass, where likewise near the Sprenger inn close to Gries, the Obernbergerbach swelled on the 14th to such an extent that it breached its banks, covered the road in debris, and rendered it impassable for some time. The Ruetzbach, which was also heavily swollen, along with its tributaries, would likely have repeated the devastation of the previous month near Unterschönberg if substantial preventive action had not already been taken through the torrent control works already well advanced there, which have already proven their beneficial effects.