At least 18 people were killed, 40 injured and 20 were missing today after rainstorms in Sicily washed away roads and destroyed homes around Messina, where rescue workers dug through the mud to find survivors, according to Reuters. Some people took refuge on roofs and were plucked to safety by helicopter. One man died, trapped in his car when it was hit by a torrent of water and mud, while another man survived after climbing out of his submerged vehicle. "I was driving home when suddenly all this stuff came down on top of me and hit me full on. I managed to climb out of the car. It was a terrible experience," the unnamed survivor, still covered in mud, was quoted by local media as saying. Messina Mayor Giuseppe Buzzanca said his town had been cut off by rain and mud which had blocked roads and covered railway lines, so the injured were being moved by sea. He urged doctors, nurses and volunteers to go to the stricken zone to help. The national government declared a state of emergency as a result of the heavy rains, which began late on Thursday and grew more intense overnight. Rescue services chief Guido Bertolaso, at a news conference to detail the number of victims, said the impact of the rain and mud was made much worse by the spread of dangerously unregulated building, which is very common in southern Italy. "One house was built on the banks of a river. So what should we expect? The water follows its course and if houses are not built where they should be, this is the result," he said. The environmentalist group Legambiente said the island was "paying a very high price for destroying the land with huge, unregulated blocks of cement". The city of Messina would be the site of one end of a controversial 10-billion euro ($14.5 billion) bridge linking mainland Italy to the Mediterranean island which the government says will be completed by 2016. "We need a serious investment plan to increase safety -- rather than grandiose public works -- in this part of the country, or else tragedies like this one will happen again," said President Giorgio Napolitano.
