We’ve lost everything’: anger and despair in Sicilian town collapsing after landslide. Guardian   Lorenzo Tondo in Niscemi. Photographs by Alessio Mamo  9 Feb 2026 People in Niscemi struggle to comprehend loss of homes and businesses and feel disaster could have been avoided. or days, the 25,000 residents of the Sicilian town of Niscemi have been living on the edge of a 25-metre abyss. On 25 January, after torrential rain brought by Cyclone Harry, a devastating landslide ripped away an entire slope of the town, creating a 4km-long chasm. Roads collapsed, cars were swallowed, and whole sections of the urban fabric plunged into the valley below.

Dozens of houses hang precariously over the edge of the landslide, while vehicles and fragments of roadway continue to give way, hour by hour, under the strain of unstable ground. Authorities have evacuated more than 1,600 people so far. Entire sections of the historic centre are at risk, including 17th-century churches that could slide downhill at any moment.According to geologists and environmental experts, the landslide in Niscemi is the latest sign of how the climate emergency is reshaping the Mediterranean, where there has been indifference to decades of flawed building policies and an out-of-control model of urbanisation.

“It all happened in a matter of moments,” said Salvatrice Disca, 70. She had been living in one of the homes now within the red zone designated by authorities as being at risk of collapse. “The power went out, and a few minutes later the police knocked on our door. They told us to leave immediately, to abandon everything and take only the essentials – a few blankets and our medicines. For a week we were unable even to wash or change what we were wearing.” Most of those evacuated are staying with relatives, while the oldest have been moved to care homes. Others have been temporarily housed in bed-and-breakfasts. Outside the red zone, firefighters have set up a tent where residents wait to be escorted by rescue officials to retrieve valuables, photographs and paintings they were unable to gather as they fled their homes.Authorised by rescue teams, the Guardian joined a mission inside the red zone, accompanying firefighters. Among the buildings destined to be abandoned permanently is a well-known pizzeria, A Barunissa. Its owner, Benedetta Ragus a, 41, has only minutes to salvage machinery and furnishings. The landslide is advancing. Last week, a three-storey residential building broke away from the edge of the precipice and smashed into the landslide’s steep slope below, after teetering on the brink for six days. We’re emptying the place,” Ragusa said. “It’s over. We’ve lost everything.” read on- and coastlines worldwide are collapsing everywhere   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/09/anger-despair-sicilian-town-crumbles-