A testing concoction of natural events has swept over Venice, including torrential rains, high tides and fiercely strong winds (that are equivalent to Category 1 hurricanes), submerging nearly three-fourths of it in water and killing eleven people.

La acqua alta (or high water) has always affected this City of Canals in Italy, but this is the worst calamity to occur here in a decade.  Most of the city—which is made up of only canals, and no roads—has been submerged in more than 5 feet of water.

Snapshots of the Piazza San Marco, the largest square in Venice where people gather, inundated show the real impact of the floods. The St Mark’s Basilica, an iconic Catholic church of Venice, too has been greatly affected with its baptistery floors flooded and mosaic floors covered in nearly 3 feet water, as per reports.

 

 

 

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To experience the worst flooding in Venice for 10 years has definitely been a shitty time do us , but to see what global warming is doing to the world 😱 10 years from now maybe all we will see in Venice is roof tops 😲😲 #venice #venicefloods #worstin10years

A post shared by Jamie Hayes (@jayhayes2014) on Oct 30, 2018 at 4:03am PDT

As it is tourist season in Venice, especially from the month September-November, the flooding has impacted scores of tourists and locals alike. Shops, restaurants have been shut down, while temporary walkways have been installed to help people traverse waters.

It isn’t just Venice, however. The powerful force winds have hit Italy from Piedmont down to Sicily. In Rome, the Colosseum was closed early weather warnings. Rising water in the Arno river has also caused minor flooding in Pisa and Florence. Other places such as Naples, Liguria, Lazio, too have been struck by the violent weather.

An event such as this isn’t one-off, unfortunately. More and more low-lying island nations over the world (officially called small island developing States or SIDS) are facing the brunt of global warming.

It is predicted, for example, that the Maldives will be completely swallowed and submerged in the next thirty years. Other small island nations such as Kiribati, Tuvalu, Haiti, the Marshall Islands, among several others are vulnerable as ever to the effects of climate change. The short-term solution suggested is often a mass shift or exodus to non-island cities, or increasing financial and technical support for these states.

The question is—will these be implemented, and will these nations survive?