NEWS AND NOTES
Blue Water Sailing
June 23, 2009
Elba storm damage update - Storm devastates hundreds of boats
Monday, June 22: A vicious storm with a whirlwind has struck the Isle of Elba, leaving hundreds of boats sunk or scattered over the beaches. The skipper of one boat was rescued, 24 miles offshore, 36 hours after he had fallen from his boat. He had survived in a rubber dinghy. Another skipper is still missing in the sea.
"The storm hit Isola d'Elba (Isle of Elba), (the third largest italian island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea between Sardinia and Tuscany) in the night between Saturday and Sunday. It lasted just an hour but it was really strong, with winds up to 65 knots, heavy rain and a whirlwind. In the morning I took a walk on the beach called "Schiopparello" where I took the pictures. There was a big boat crushed on the rocks immediately in front of a house and another twin masted one grounded on its side over the shallows of a submerged Etruscan city, 50 meters off the beach. The beach had plenty of pieces of boats scattered everywhere, rubber dinghies and dead seabirds (probably victims of the whirlwind). There have been hundreds of boats sunk or grounded along the whole coastline of the Island. The most dramatic situation occurred on the other side of the island, near the village of Marina di Campo where two men disappeared into the sea during the storm. The first Luca Boncompagni, 46 years old from Florence was found some hours later by Italian Coast Guard ten kms far from the point where he fell into the sea. The other one, Gennaro Grillo, 47 years old, a skipper from Sicily is sadly still missing since the moment he jumped on the tender of his boat (where he was carrying some diving fans). The rescue operations are still going on, but the last glimmers of hope are quickly vanishing. I spoke directly with the owner of the twin masted grounded boat in the pictures, a girl, that described me the situation this way: "Everything happened in 5 minutes, we were sleeping than suddenly everything started to move it was impossible to see anything, we didn't know what to do, because it was impossible to see, everything was water! Than five minutes later we were grounded!".
I also spoke with a guy that was the owner of the little red boat that you can see in the picture near the bigger one crashed against the rocks. He was trying to save the boats of the nearby yachting school, but the situation became quickly desperate and he was hurled against the rocks too. People from the house helped him and gave him a shelter for the night."
Photos: Guido Trombetta. From: BYMnews.com. To see more images, Go to:
http://www.bymnews.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=307.
