More than 1,500 evacuated as landslide threatens cliffside homes in Sicily’s Niscemi
NISCEMI, Sicily — More than 1,500 people have been evacuated from the Sicilian town of Niscemi after a major landslide, triggered by violent storms, left homes teetering on the edge of a cliff, Italy’s civil protection chief said.
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Niscemi, a town of about 25,000 in south-central Sicily, sits on a plateau that authorities say is gradually collapsing toward the plain below, driven by water that remains trapped in the subsoil. The shifting ground has destabilized entire blocks and forced a rapid evacuation of residents from the most exposed areas.
Footage from the scene showed whole buildings perched on the brink after large sections of the slope gave way. A car was left hanging over the edge, visible from inside a partially collapsed structure, underscoring the suddenness and scale of the collapse.
“Let’s be clear: if a house is on the edge it cannot be occupied,” civil protection head Fabio Ciciliano told reporters in Niscemi, adding that residents in the affected zones would be permanently relocated. Authorities said the priority is to keep people away from the unstable cliff face as engineers assess the extent of ground movement and identify safe perimeters.
The evacuation comes amid a period of increasingly extreme weather across Italy. In recent years, floods have devastated cities, killed dozens of people and amplified the risk of landslides in areas historically considered less vulnerable. Officials in Sicily said the intense storms that lashed the island brought powerful winds and heavy surf, aggravating coastal and inland instability.
The national administration has set aside 100 million euros for immediate needs, civil protection officials said. Local authorities, however, estimate damages at more than 1 billion euros after powerful winds and waves pushed the sea inland, overwhelming coastal defenses and destroying homes and business. The rising bill reflects losses across affected regions and the breadth of the recovery ahead, from emergency shelter and debris removal to longer-term strengthening of slopes and shorelines.
In Niscemi, the abrupt order to evacuate has fueled anxiety and anger among residents, some of whom say earlier warning signs went unaddressed. “I have been told that I have to leave. We had the first landslide 30 years ago, and no one ever did anything,” said local resident Francesco Zarba.
Officials say the landslide’s underlying drivers — a saturated subsoil and a plateau trending downhill — will require permanent solutions, not just temporary fixes. The civil protection department has pledged to keep residents informed as relocations proceed and technical teams map the active risk area. In the meantime, authorities urged people to respect exclusion zones and avoid returning to damaged homes.
The situation in Niscemi adds to mounting pressure on Italy’s disaster-response and infrastructure budgets as climate-driven extremes intensify. With more storms forecast for the season, emergency managers warned that landslide-prone zones across the country will be closely monitored, and that evacuations may be ordered swiftly where the ground shows signs of giving way.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
