Rome, May 18, (dpa/GNA) – At least 13 people have died in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region in devastating floods along the country’s Adriatic coast, where the highest alert level remained in place on Thursday.
The latest two deaths were those of a man and a woman who were found in the town of Russi in the province of Ravenna on Thursday, ANSA and Adnkronos news agencies reported.
Further bodies were recovered in Castel Bolognese and the town of Sant’Agata sul Santerno on Thursday.
Evacuations were proceeding in certain parts of the region earlier on Thursday, with an immediate evacuation order in force in Ravenna.
While further rain is not expected, the civil protection department urged caution. Several people were reported still missing. The Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena and Rimini provinces in Emilia-Romagna – and in particular the cities of Faenza, Cesena and Forlì – were worst hit.
According to the most recent information on Wednesday, 23 rivers in the region had burst their banks, with 41 municipalities affected by flooding.
Authorities recorded 280 landslides, and 400 blocked roads. Emergency services were called out around 2,000 times over the past 48 hours, deploying 900 fire officers and 300 vehicles.
Thousands of people were evacuated, with the region’s president, Stefano Bonaccini, referring to “incredible numbers and lots of evacuations.”
The civil protection department said around 50,000 people were without electricity and 100,000 without a connection to the mobile network.
Entire villages remain underwater, and many roads are covered in mud. The Coldiretti agricultural association described the damage to crops as “incalculable” and said, “valuable agricultural land has been devastated.”
Some politicians described the flooding as an “apocalypse.”
Cleanup efforts also began on Thursday as people returned to their homes to survey the damage.
Among them was Giuseppe Beltrame, who stood in mud up to his shins after the extreme rainfall that struck the town of Faenza.
Beltrame pointed to the wall of the house where a brown line at a level of some 2.5 metres showed the level of the water when he was evacuated, together with his wife and dog, brought to safety by rescuers in a rubber dinghy early on Wednesday morning.
A day later, everything in his home, from tables to chairs, is covered in mud. He, like many others in the region, was bewildered by the extent of the rainfall, with the quantity usually seen in half a year falling in just two days.
A neighbour, Federica Pizzuto, stood crying as she looked at how the flooding had ruined her newly renovated house. “We wanted to move in at the end of May. The new furniture is already in there, a new kitchen too,” she said.
The region has struggled with drought in recent months, and the soil was unable to absorb the sudden torrential rains, said regional president Stefano Bonaccini.
The flooding interrupted electricity and mobile phone networks in much of the region, with water pipes also affected.
Many other regions sent helpers and equipment to Emilia-Romagna and Marche. Bonaccini estimated the damage at several billion euros, he told Italian television, demanding swift assistance from the government.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni assured him of support from Japan, where she is attending the G7 summit.
She called a cabinet meeting to arrange financial support for Emilia-Romagna and to discuss specific measures against landslides and flooding.
Pope Francis also expressed his sympathies on Thursday to the victims of the devastating floods that struck Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region on Wednesday, saying that he was praying for the deceased and their families.
Francis described the floods as a “huge catastrophe” in a telegram to Bologona Archbishop Matteo Maria Zuppi. He called for “consolation for the injured and those suffering the consequences of the serious disaster.”
The head of the world’s Catholics also thanked those working to relieve the suffering “in these particularly difficult hours.”
GNA