The damage assessment is ongoing. What emerges from the data of the Regional Civil Protection authority is incontestable: Cyclone Harry, which devastated Sicily between January 19 and 21, caused an estimated damage of between 1.5 and 2 billion euros. Stretches of coastline have been erased, railway infrastructure interrupted with rails suspended in mid-air, thousands of families evacuated. Facing this scenario, the State has allocated 103 million euros so far: just 5 percent of the total damage. According to the Più Uno Sicilia movement, 95 percent of the necessary resources are missing.
The Regional Civil Protection estimates quantify the damage at 741 million euros. This figure does not include indirect economic damage related to disruptions in productive, tourist, and agricultural activities. Adding these, the estimate reaches and exceeds 1.5 billion euros. The hardest-hit provinces are Catania with 244 million euros, Messina with 202.5 million, and Siracusa with 159.8 million. Sardinia recorded damage exceeding 500 million euros.
The event was characterized by sirocco gusts of up to 120 kilometers per hour, storm surge with waves up to 10 meters, and exceptional precipitation. In some areas, rainfall accumulation exceeded 300 millimeters.
The Sicilian Region allocated 70 million euros from its own resources. The national Government added 33 million through a civil protection ordinance, bringing the total allocation to 103 million. To these are added 20 million in already-approved regional funds, but the picture remains far from the actual needs of the territory.
The 100 million allocated by the Government for the national emergency were initially designated to cover first expenses incurred by municipalities: debris removal and restoration of essential services functionality. Only later, once the damage is precisely quantified, will further allocation for reconstruction proceed.
In Niscemi, in the province of Caltanissetta, the situation is even more critical. A landslide of considerable proportions necessitated the evacuation of over 1,500 people. The ground movement, which began in the afternoon of January 25, has a front exceeding four kilometers in width and continues to expand.
According to statements by the national Civil Protection chief, the entire hillside on which the town is built is moving. Entire neighborhoods—Sante Croci, Trappeto, and via Popolo—have been evacuated. Mayor Massimiliano Conti reported that some areas will be declared "red zones," with families unable to return to their homes. A census is underway to determine who will need economic support.
The cyclone inflicted severe damage on the agricultural sector, with thousands of hectares of crops destroyed. In the territory of Burgio, in the province of Agrigento, citrus groves in the midst of harvest season were devastated by violent wind gusts. Losses in the Burgio territory alone amount to approximately 1.5 million euros, with thousands of fruits fallen to the ground in conditions rendering them unsellable.
In the Catania plain, around the Gornalunga river, arable land has been submerged by water. In the Ragusa and Messina areas, hay storage tunnels have been uncovered and greenhouses destroyed. Coldiretti Sicilia has already initiated procedures to request disaster status, anticipating further losses in the coming weeks.
Along the Ionian coast, damage to infrastructure has been significant. In Lampedusa, the commercial dock—the island's sole vital artery for supplies and connections—risks structural collapse. Linosa has been literally cut off, with its road network completely destroyed.
State roads have suffered numerous interruptions. State Road 114, the coastal artery connecting Messina, Catania, and Siracusa, experienced three interruptions due to flooding and landslides between Sant'Alessio Siculo and Giardini Naxos. The Messina-Catania-Siracusa and Catania-Caltanissetta-Xirbi railway lines remained suspended for structural inspections and debris removal.
The context in which this emergency occurs is that of a National Plan for Climate Change Adaptation (PNACC) approved in December 2023 but remaining substantially without funding. According to Legambiente and environmental organizations, the PNACC remained an "empty shell" during the 2025 budget law, with no allocation to implement the 361 identified actions.
The Plan identified Sicilian coasts as territory at the highest risk regarding the climate crisis, with increasingly violent meteorological events known as medicanes (tropical-characteristic cyclones in the Mediterranean). However, no financial resources were allocated to implement the coastal defense strategies provided for in the document.
Cyclone Harry is not an isolated event. According to studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 74 percent of extreme weather events have been made more probable or intense by climate change. Research published by Climameter highlighted that Cyclone Harry's winds were four to eight kilometers per hour stronger than what would have occurred in a climate without global warming.
The Mediterranean is one of the world's climate crisis hotspots, with rising water temperatures favoring the formation of increasingly violent and frequent medicanes. Legambiente Sicilia emphasized how damage recorded along the coasts results from a "downward slope" in which climate crisis cumulates with decades of uncontrolled development and urbanization choices that have eliminated natural defenses, such as sand dunes.
The Più Uno Sicilia movement has advanced a series of requests to the Government and Region. According to leader Ernesto Maria Ruffini, Sicily is not a "periphery to be forgotten between one emergency and another" but the "heart of the Mediterranean," exposed on the front lines to the climate crisis.
The movement demands immediate allocation of at least 500 million euros for the emergency, drawing from the National Emergency Fund and remodulating spending priorities. It also contests the contrast between the 14 billion euros allocated for the Strait of Messina Bridge and insufficient funds for damaged infrastructure.
Beyond this, Più Uno Sicilia demands suspension of mortgages, local taxes, and pension contributions for citizens and businesses in affected areas, with automatic procedures; an extraordinary plan to secure Sicilian coasts; immediate implementation of the PNACC with financial allocation; strict restrictions on construction along the shore and relocation plans for at-risk structures; settlement of indemnities to destroyed businesses within 90 days; establishment of a public dashboard showing in real time every euro allocated, committed, and disbursed.
Più Uno Sicilia has also requested that the Sicilian Region publish within 15 days a detailed report on funds allocated for the October 2024 Catania flooding (amount, committed, disbursed), funds for the 2024 drought emergency, and average disbursement times for indemnities to agricultural businesses.
The movement has sharply criticized the rhetoric of "a State close to its citizens" and the appointment of yet another extraordinary commissioner: "We do not accept talk of a 'gesture of solidarity' when families, businesses, and entire communities have lost everything."
The picture emerging from the data shows a situation where allocated funding covers a minimal fraction of the damage, where critical infrastructure remains vulnerable despite being theoretically identified by the PNACC, and where transparency on spending from previous emergency interventions remains opaque.
Experts warn that without an adequately funded adaptation plan and without a revision of urbanization choices that have left coasts rigid and unable to absorb the impact of storm surge, damage from the next emergency could be even greater. Sicily remains on the front lines of the climate crisis's effects, with medicanes becoming increasingly probable and violent.
