At 9 PM, while still exploring the workings of the apartment, we decided to sleep with a light on to navigate the treacherous floor beams in the middle of the night. While getting ready for an early sleep due to jet lag, we suddenly heard World War II type sirens begin to blow really loud. Once the sirens stopped, high pitched beeping sounds followed. There were many of them and they sounded like some sort of alien code echoing throughout the city. We slept for 3 solid hours and woke up to a freezing and pitch-black apartment. Stumbling around, I glanced out a window and noticed the city seemed awfully dark, with only a light on here or there.
I grabbed my cell and called the landlord. We had no heat, no electricity, no hot water. The power was out. He then explained to us what those high-pitched beeps were. They alert Venetians to the possible height of the inevitable flooding, hence why there were so many this time. He said the entire city was under water.
St Mark Saves the Slave from Torture by Tintoretto (Accademia)
Photo: Arthur Wooten
I’m not sure where the owner of the apartment lived, but it was certainly not nearby. I think he was on the mainland. To solve the power outage problem, he asked me to check the circuit breakers for the apartment. For that, I put on my wellies and Bud and I carefully walked down the pitch-black staircases to the first-floor vestibule of our house while using our phone’s flashlights to help us navigate. Having reached the bottom floor, I saw the metal circuit breaker box but it was across the room. He instructed me to open it. Even though I was wearing rubber boots, I was standing in shin deep water and fearful he was going to ask me to flip a switch. Suddenly, I remembered that one day I had said, “I could die happy in Venice,” but I didn’t want this to be the day, or the way. He asked me if all the switches were in the ‘up’ position and I said yes. He then said, “Head back upstairs. The city has either lost its power or has purposefully shut if off for safety reasons.” I survived and we clambered back up the stairs to the freezing attic.
Wind and rain smashed against the roof and our skylights and come morning we still had no power. I called the owner again, who finally seemed as concerned as we were. I was also thinking that we were going to lose power to our phones soon. He was going to send an assistant over to the apartment to figure out what to do.
Two hours went by and I called him back to inform him that no one had arrived. He said, “She couldn’t reach you.” “Why?” I asked. “The floods are above waist deep. Six feet above sea level to be exact.”
Photo: Matteo De Fina
I thought that we’d wait it out and in a couple of hours the tide would recede, but it didn’t. Finally, there was a knock on the door and the assistant to the landlord appeared in hip waders. She was able to turn the power back on, but informed us that we should wait a good 3 hours before attempting to leave the house. The inside foyer of our house was still full with at least a foot of water.
That night the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Grugnaro, said in a tweet that the city was “on its knees” and he declared a “state of emergency.” I also read that one person had died…he was trying to start his water pump and got electrocuted.
After 3 P.M. we managed to crawl out of our house. We walked down our street to Campo San Barnaba. A permanent da Vinci installation was housed in the Church of San Barnaba with actual reconstructions of many of da Vinci’s inventions, but it was closed. We were to discover that many museums, churches, shops, and restaurants would be closed due to the devastating effects of the flooding.
