Tornado in Italy: Cyclone devastates popular holiday beach

Incredible images on a beach in Italy: A tornado rips umbrellas and loungers into the air. A man films the natural phenomenon and puts himself in danger.

Grosseto – Smashed parasols and loungers and a playground that was razed to the ground. This is the result of a waterspout that devastated a stretch of beach in Italy. In the Marina di Grosseto district of the provincial capital Grosseto in Tuscany, the weather phenomenon found its way ashore and became a tornado. Fortunately, no one was injured. An Italian holiday beach was recently devastated by a tornado.

Tornado in Italy: Hurricane devastates beach – video shows the moments of fear

As the newspaper The Tyrrhenian Sea reported that a playground, a volleyball court, about seventy umbrellas, hundreds of sun loungers and fifty chairs were destroyed. Beach equipment and an ice skate were reportedly thrown 150 meters away. Footage from beachgoers shows the moments during the storm and the devastation afterward. A man named “Leo” shared a video of the dangerous moments during the storm on Platform X.

Windstorm turns into tornado on Italian beach: “Significant damage”

The waterspout – the phenomenon is only called a tornado when it is over land – is said to have come from the south at around 1:30 p.m. on September 5, 2024, and caught people there completely unprepared. Some are said to have taken shelter under a canopy. “The children’s playground practically no longer exists,” the owner of the Bagno Giglio bathing establishment, Claudio Castellucci, told the medium. The bathing establishment was hit directly. The plastic toys could not withstand the violent impact on the sun loungers. He spoke of “significant damage.” It is not the first time that a huge waterspout has swept across Tuscany. A coastal town near Rome was also badly devastated.

The tornado “hit us practically with full force and left us no escape. We found pieces scattered all over the beach and next to it. From an economic point of view, the blow was hard when you consider that buying a parasol and a lounger in bulk costs about 750 euros,” Castellucci continued. Visitors and other owners of spared beach facilities helped him put the umbrellas back together, he said. But many had to be thrown away, as did his television antenna. “My colleagues were really kind in taking care of things and helping to clean up.”

Beach resort operator after tornado: “I won’t be impressed by a hurricane”

But he was determined to fight: “I will not be put off by a hurricane, even a violent one: I will get the beach back on its feet with the stocks and the parasols that are still available.” He hopes for mild weather for the rest of the season. At a time like this, “it takes a lot of goodwill and the affection of colleagues and friends to move forward and forget this terrible experience that we have never had before,” he said. (cgsc)