The Civil Protection of Emilia-Romagna has issued a red alert for today, Wednesday 10 May, which will affect Bologna and a large part of the metropolitan area both in the plains and in the hills. They are expected floods on all waterways of the central-eastern sector of the region. Landslides may occur along the slopes, more likely in the hilly/mountainous central-eastern sector.
The bad weather does not give respite. The red hydraulic and hydrogeological criticality expected in the Bologna plain and hills – Emilia Romagna is the Italian region with the highest hydrogeological risk – and the red alert which is also affecting the provinces of Ravenna e you Forlì-Cesena are connected to the numerous vulnerabilities still in place on the territories affected by the floods and landslides of 2 and 3 May, which have caused at least 1 billion of danni and over 140 landslides in the Apennines. The Municipality of Bologna keeps the Municipal Civil Protection Operations Center active, provided for in emergencies, at the local Police Headquarters in via Ferrari. The local police will activate surveillance services in critical points of the city. Even the technicians of the Metropolitan City will keep the most critical points of the provincial roads under observation, already severely damaged by the bad weather of recent days. The rainfall situation will be constantly monitored and, if necessary, possible interventions to close road sections that present critical issues will be evaluated, with particular attention to those already damaged by exceptional rainfall and last week’s landslides, both in the hilly area of the city and in the metropolitan area. Citizens are invited to make only the necessary movements and not to stop near watercourses.
In the meantime, the evacuations in the Municipalities of the Santerno valley, in the Imolese area, hit hard by the wave of bad weather in recent days. The rains forecast for today, with a new red alert for this area as well, are of great concern to the residents. As a precaution, therefore, families in locality of Carseggioa Casalfiumanese, have been placed elsewhere to spend the night. A dozen people residing in via Siepi di Campiuno and via Monte Battaglia a were also evacuated Borgo Tossignano.
During a meeting held yesterday afternoon in the Prefecture a Ravenna, then, the prefect Castrese De Rosa recalled that the province of Romagna is on the eve of a maximum level alert with a territory “very fragile and devastated by landslides and broken embankments”. To take stock of the situation, there were mayors and the forces of order for “an emergency that has been going on for a week now”. During the meeting it emerged that all the embankments have been fixed, but these are temporary works. That is, there is a fear that in some points they may not hold up a new flood. The invitation to the population was to pay maximum attention and to collaborate: in the event of a very high risk, the evacuation tool will be used again. As for the roads, some will be closed and others will be closed in case of need.