Gusting winds send tables flying, damage port in Naples

Storm floods roads, cuts yacht moorings, Metro station closed

(ANSA) Naples, June 16 - A fierce thunderstorm and gusting winds struck this port city Monday, sending café tables and chairs flying, severing yacht moorings and cracking walls in a building hit by lightning, firefighter said. Several streets near Naples' main Poggioreale prison were flooded including one linking the penitentiary to the Palace of Justice courthouse, preventing transfer of suspects from the Camorra, the Neapolitan version of the Mafia, to stand trial.

Emergency service telephones were jammed with requests for help from firefighters, traffic was snarled even more than usual, trees toppled and flower pots tumbled from balconies in the smart Vomero hillside district overlooking the Bay of Naples. The central Garibaldi station of the underground Metro system was closed due to flooding of tracks requiring draining while traffic proceeded at a crawl on the state highway 268 linking the city to Herculaneum, Pompeii and the rash of other towns nestling under the shadow of the Vesuvius volcano.