After months of drought, an unprecedented amount of rain in 48 hours swelled rivers on the plains to overflowing and caused landslides and mudslides in the mountains and hills. The wave of bad weather that overwhelmed Emilia-Romagna in two days, above all in the area between the provinces of Bologna and Ravenna, caused two victims while around 500 people had to leave their homes as a precaution or to escape the fury of the floods. Some levees had already broken yesterday, but it was during the night that the situation worsened with the intensification of the rainfall.
And although the civil protection had moved in time, issuing a red alert aimed precisely at the areas where there were problems, there were the two victims. In Castel Bolognese, one of the most affected towns in the province of Ravenna, Remo Bianconcini, 80, who was cycling along the banks of the Senio, in a forbidden area, died. Overwhelmed by the flood, he probably died by drowning. In Fontanelice, on the other hand, on the Imola hill, a landslide swept over the house of Enrico Rivola, 74, whose body was found under the rubble. Initially it was thought that there might be another person with him, but identified in another house shortly after the discovery of the body of the old man. About 500 people were evacuated, some of them as a precaution, others because they found themselves with the lower floors of the houses unusable. Reception points have been set up in many centres, including gyms and sports halls, which however have remained largely empty given that the vast majority of people who live in the areas closest to the rivers have found hospitality with relatives and friends. In many areas, schools remained closed. Flooding has stopped trains and led to the closure of many roads.
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The problem mainly concerned the tributaries of the Reno river which runs alongside Bologna and flows into the Adriatic and which, like its major neighbour, the Po, has been at its lowest flow rate for months. A situation that, given how things went, has probably avoided much worse trouble. Its tributaries have been under stress, especially in their final part: the civil protection graphs show growth peaks never seen in such a short time of the Senio, Sillaro, Lamone (which flows into the Adriatic very close to the Reno) and other rivers.
Hundreds evacuated in the Ravenna area
In the span of 24 hours they went from a near-drought threshold to exceeding the danger level. “More than 140 millimeters of water fell, about a fifth of what is normally the national average, a really important value in an area already tried by months of drought and which has created an important waterway” explained the head of Civil Protection Fabrizio Curcio, who arrived in Emilia Romagna to take stock with the local authorities after Minister Nello Musumeci signed the decree that provides for the extraordinary mobilization of the national civil protection system and allocate the first funds.
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In some cases the banks have broken, in others the rivers have overflowed. In most cases by flooding rural areas and floodplains, in some cases reaching farmhouses and the peripheral areas of larger inhabited centers such as Faenza. The red alert has also been extended to the next few hours, even if the fact that no more rain is expected gives hope for a quick solution to the emergency. Now the risk is landslides. “In the next few hours – Curcio continues – there will be a drop in water levels and therefore we will have to expect hydrogeological phenomena. We must carefully monitor” the situation. Some rivers, especially those closest to the Adriatic, remain in a phase of flooding and of great attention, while almost all the others have returned below the danger level, even if the banks have suffered greatly. Then the damage count will begin, which also concerns the city of Bologna, where an underground canal overflowed which led to the closure of via Saffi. The Region is already working to ask for a state of emergency and the guarantee of help has arrived from the Government, with Giorgia Meloni who immediately expressed her solidarity and closeness.
Anas personnel and vehicles engaged in Emilia Romagna
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