The snow emergency in Arzana has turned into a real odyssey for some shepherds. Yesterday morning the Civil Protection managed to reach the farmers and bring them back home. Gigi Piras, Pietro Monni and Fabio Cerina, surprised by the storm, spent three days and three nights in their sheepfolds on the Gennargentu without being able to communicate with their families. Mute phones and no drinking water. They had to melt the snow. Excellent thirst quencher in full criticality. After the storm, doubts remain on the management of the emergency.

The tales

Diego Stochino, also a shepherd from Arezzo, managed to reach home before the situation worsened with the snow chains mounted on his off-road vehicle. In the front row behind the municipal snowplow the mayor of Arzana Angelo Stochino and the councilor for public works Fabrizio Deiana, arrived in the mountains to bring comfort to their fellow citizens and examine the situation. “We were stuck in the folds from Friday until yesterday morning. We worked twice as much trying to look after the cattle and shoveled all the time. In twenty years I have been stuck on other occasions but never in the spring, ”said Gigi Piras, 61. His fold, with goats and sheep, is located near Ruinas, on the Seulo side, a thousand meters high. “My biggest concern was not being able to warn anyone. Here the phone sometimes has no signal even in good weather, let alone with snow, which has reached half a meter. We did not expect such an unseasonable snowfall. In addition, to return home I would have had to cross a height of 1200 meters, it was unthinkable ».

Blocked

Bad weather caught everyone off guard. Those who were in the village could not reach the companies on the Gennargentu until yesterday when the road was cleared by the Civil Protection. Roberto Usai is 27 years old, has been raising cows since 2015. «I managed to get to the Coil'e Ballacca sheepfold yesterday, thanks to the help of the Municipality. From the village we could not reach the cattle. The animals left alone have certainly suffered a lot ». Usai immediately unloaded the hay, immersed in the fog in a lunar landscape, while a few flakes were still falling.

Emergencies

Mayor and councilor followed the situation in person throughout the day. "To intervene we are using municipal funds - explained the administrators - the Sardinia Region finances us for 19 thousand euros, a trifle compared to what we need and which covers a third of what is necessary". Emergency management needs to be reorganized. «We ask the Region to double the funds, we need at least 40 thousand euros - continued Stochino and Deiana - and we must also rethink an adequate snow plan, even the shepherds have asked us for it. Climate change has upset habits and customs. We will undertake to create a plan to allow the reaching of the most remote folds and to keep the situation under control ».

Francesca Lai

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