Storms and fragile grids: Tuscany and Lombardy underwater, Indiana without power for over a week

This article does not update the 6:30 piece on the British Columbia wildfires, which remains published at its own address: it covers two stories not addressed this morning.

The first concerns central and northern Italy. During the night between August 20 and 21, 2026, severe weather crossed much of the province of Grosseto, with strong winds and numerous lightning strikes. According to Italpress, fire brigade teams intervened for fallen trees, damaged roof tiles and coverings, and damaged electrical systems. On Via Minghetti, in Grosseto, an apartment caught fire; the blaze was extinguished and no injuries were reported. On the broader picture, Sky TG24 records landslides, flooding and thousands of lightning strikes between Lombardy and Tuscany, with roads and railway lines disrupted.

The second unfolds in the American Midwest. In Indiana, according to NPR, tens of thousands of people have entered their second week without electricity following a storm that caused fatalities and brought down trees and power lines in the Gary area. Schools have not reopened, several businesses remain closed, and community centers are distributing free meals. On this story, the news currently comes from a single source (NPR, with AP photographic documentation); no independent confirmation is available. The number of households still without power is not precisely indicated in the sources available to us, and no date for full restoration has been announced.

The two situations are not comparable in intensity or in phase: in Italy the event has just passed and the damage assessment is still open, in Indiana the event ended days ago and what persists is its aftermath. Precisely for this reason, the comparison reveals something useful. The common factor is not the violence of the phenomenon, but the point at which ordinary life breaks down: the electrical grid and the transport network. In Grosseto firefighters are working on damaged systems while elsewhere roads and railways are being closed; in the Gary area the storm passed over a week ago and schools remain closed because power is out.

There is a significant difference in the time needed to return to normal. The road and rail disruptions described in Italy are isolated episodes, resolved by removing obstacles and inspecting landslide-affected slopes. Restoring a wide-area power distribution network, by contrast, requires physically replacing poles, cables and transformers, and proceeds neighborhood by neighborhood: those at the end of the line wait days, not hours. This asymmetry explains why a storm lasting a few hours can produce a week of closed schools.

None of the sources consulted currently provide a consolidated assessment of economic damage for either event, in Italy or in Indiana. In Tuscany and Lombardy, rescue teams are still completing operations; in the Gary area, meal distribution at community centers continues, a sign that electrical service has not been restored everywhere.

Sources: Italpress (source: Grosseto provincial fire brigade command); Sky TG24; NPR.