The two main surviving UK broadsheets, The Times and The Telegraph, reached out to We are here Venice for comment on 9 December 2020 after the various and different authorities with responsibility for protecting the city and its inhabitants between them failed to activate the newly completed flood barrier, known as Mose. Most of the city was flooded, and it brought back scary memories from this time last year.
Jane Da Mosto, who campaigns for the preservation of Venice, said Mose managers were responsible, not the forecasters. “If they haven’t understood the uncertainty in weather forecasting yet, and want to blame this on being out by 5cm, who are they to be looking after Mose?” she said. “We knew we were facing adverse weather — couldn’t they have kept staff on standby?
“Raising the barrier costs a huge amount of money and involves closing off the lagoon to shipping, said Jane da Mosto, the British director of We are here Venice, an activist group that campaigns to preserve the city. I don’t know whether the failure to raise the barrier was because of money or lack of clarity over who makes the decision. But the decision needs to involve Venice,” she said.