Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited a southern Sicilian town on Wednesday, which was left teetering on the edge of a cliff after days of torrential rain from a hurricane that triggered a massive landslide that destroyed property and forced the evacuation of more than 1,500 people.
The landslide in the town of Nisimi, located in the southwest of the island, extended for 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Pictures showed cars and structures that had fallen 20 meters from the newly formed cliff, while many other homes were still perched precariously on the edge of the cliff.
Civil protection crews created a 150-metre-wide “no-go zone” in the town, which is located directly inside the coastal city of Gela.
“The entire hill is collapsing in the Gela Plain,” Civil Protection Chief Fabio Siciliano said. “To be honest, there are homes that are on the edge of the landslide and are clearly no longer habitable, so we need to work with the mayor to find a permanent place for these families.”
Authorities have warned that residents with homes in the area will have to find long-term alternatives to return because the submerged land remains shifting and too unstable to live on.
The federal government included Nisimi in a state of emergency declaration on Monday for three southern regions hit hard by Hurricane Harry and allocated an initial sum of 100 million euros ($120 million) to be divided among them. On Wednesday, regional officials in Sicily estimated the total damage to Sicily at about two billion euros.
Meloni took a helicopter tour of the landslide area and met with local, regional and civil protection officials at City Hall. She pledged that the initial emergency funding was just the first step in addressing the immediate financial needs of the displaced population and that more was on the way.
Her office said in a statement that the government is committed to helping residents find alternative housing and restoring roads, facilities and school activities in the city.
“The situation is complicated by the fact that as long as the landslide remains active, it is impossible to determine the specific area to be treated and thus determine intervention methods,” she added.
Built on a hill on layers of sand and clay that become particularly permeable in heavy rain, the Nisimi site has moved before, most recently in a major landslide in 1997 that led to the evacuation of 400 people, geologists say.
“The situation today repeats itself with more important 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 University of Catania on the island.
The latest landslide, which began on Sunday with Hurricane Harry hitting southern Italy, has revived the political debate over why construction should be allowed on land known to be at high risk of landslides due to its geological makeup.
Renato Schifani, Sicily’s centre-right regional president, acknowledged that such questions were legitimate. But noting that he had only been in office for a few years, he said the main issue was the institutional response to immediately help the affected population.
Elie Schlein, leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic Party, called on the government to reallocate €1 billion approved for its controversial bridge from Sicily to the Italian mainland and direct it towards areas affected by the storm, since the bridge project is currently tied up in court appeals.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.