The flood emergency continues in Emilia Romagna with the incessant rains, vast areas under water and the continuous landslides that are bringing the Apennines to their knees. The number of displaced persons rises to more than 36,600, most of them in the Ravenna area. A helicopter that was checking the power lines for Enel crashed, 4 were injured, two of which were in serious condition. The premier Giorgia Meloni anticipates the return to Italy from the G7 meeting in Hiroshima: “My conscience requires me to return”.
The President of the Council Giorgia Meloni, according to what has been learned, it has recently landed at Rimini airport. The prime minister, who returned early from the G7, will make an inspection of the areas affected by the flood.
“Finally the sun has come out. The situation is improving: we still have some areas, particularly in the Ravenna area, the lower ones, which are flooded. In Cesena, the city is really being cleaned up and in my opinion, tomorrow evening, it will be cleaned up, if not all, almost all”. This was stated by the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, speaking directly from Cesena to the transmission ‘L’ Indignato Speciale’ on Rtl 102.5, Stefano Bonaccini.
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13.00 Four trucks with ninety quintals of material delivered to Forlì, to help people affected by the floods of these days, plus a special message of solidarity. It is the result of the day organized by Usmia Carabinieri and Siulp Modena: in the rain, many went to the food collection center in Modena, bringing basic necessities.
12.59 “Work continues on the Emilia-Romagna canal, the Cer, both to reverse its course so as to make its waters flow towards the Po, and to use it as an accumulation tank”: thus told ANSA the municipal councilor for civil protection, Gianandrea Baroncini, explains the works that the municipal administration of Ravenna has been putting in place for days “in an attempt – he underlines – to lighten the reclamation channels present in the city”.
12.49 – The alert level in Emilia-Romagna does not drop: the civil protection has, in fact, renewed the red alert for tomorrow as well on the areas affected by the bad weather of recent days. The red code in Bologna and Romagna it is connected to the serious hydrogeological and hydraulic problems already present in the area and originating from the events of recent days. However, light scattered precipitation is expected tomorrow. No significant increases in river levels are expected. The danger of landslides remains very high.
12.16 “I sincerely renew my closeness to the population of Emilia Romagna, affected by the floods in recent days”. Pope Francis said this at the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square, recalling that today the Laudato Si’ Week begins.
12.11 In Barge, the town in the province of Cuneo that saw the most rain yesterday, 189 mm, the bridge over the Ghiandone stream has been closed since yesterday, having already reached the danger level yesterday morning. “There are microlandslides, especially on Mount Bracco – reports Maurizio Rasetto, municipal councilor for civil protection – but at the moment we don’t have major problems. The rivers have obviously swollen and some bealera have come out, but it seems that now the rain has stopped calm down”.
11.36 The inhabited center of Ribordone, a town of about seventy inhabitants in the valley of the same name in the province of Turin, is isolated due to the fall of some rocks on the road.
10:57 “Finally the sun has come out. The situation is improving: we still have some areas, particularly in the Ravenna area, the lower ones, which are flooded. In Cesena, the city is really being cleaned up and in my opinion, tomorrow evening, it will be cleaned up, if not all, almost all”. This was stated by the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini, speaking directly from Cesena to the broadcast ‘L’ Indignato Speciale’ on Rtl 102.5.
10.39 The situation relating to the ongoing flood emergency was monitored throughout the night and currently appears substantially unchanged. This is what the Municipality of Ravenna makes known through the daily update of the institutional website. Adding that “the level of the channels is stable”.
10.26 After yesterday’s strong storm, the damage in the Aeolian Islands is counted, while the interventions to make safety and restore the road network that had been closed in various areas of the islands due to the invasion of brackish water, crushed stone and various debris have already started.
10.25 After reaching the danger level, 4 meters high, the Po flooded this morning in Villafranca Piemonte, on the border between the provinces of Cuneo and Turin. Floods also occurred in the village of Cardè.
9.50 Protection, water and food must be guaranteed for the more than 250,000 cattle, pigs, sheep and goats reared in the stables of flooded Romagna where there are also around 400 poultry farms, including chickens, laying hens and turkeys and almost 45,000 bee hives, many of which they are missing. This is what emerges from the monitoring of Coldiretti
9.35 It continued to rain throughout the night in many areas of Piedmont and this morning the Po river exceeded the danger level, in Carignano and Villafranca, in the Turin area. The most abundant rainfall in the Cuneo area: the Arpa weather station in Barge recorded over 300 millimeters of rain in three days.
9.15 There are about 180 people displaced by the floods who are currently hosted in the 4 hubs made available by the Municipality of Ravenna.
9.10 Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is flying to Emilia Romagna, where she is expected around lunchtime for an inspection in the areas affected by bad weather. The Italian state aircraft, which took off in the night from Hiroshima in advance of the closing of the G7 summit, made a stopover in Kazakhstan and is now headed for Italy.
9.08 There are two investigations into the helicopter that crashed yesterday morning in Belricetto di Lugo, in the Ravenna area, between a flooded field and a road covered in mud. One – as reported by the two local newspapers – was launched by ENAC, the national body for civil aviation. And the other was opened by the prosecutor Angela Scorza who ordered the seizure of the wreck. Two hypotheses of crime under consideration: culpable injuries and aviation disaster, in the first instance against unknown persons
9.06 The “Adriatica” state road 16 is temporarily closed to traffic, in both directions, between km 171 and km 173, in Cervia, in the province of Ravenna.
9.04 Almost 4,000 interventions were carried out by firefighters in Emilia Romagna. There are 1,121 men involved in rescue operations
8.41 At 8 am on the A14 Bologna-Taranto the stretch between Faenza and Forlì was reopened, making three lanes towards Ancona and two lanes towards Bologna available to traffic.
ANSA Agency
In Bologna the press conference of Salvini and Piantedosi. “The Imola GP could be recovered in 2026” says the deputy prime minister. The Minister of the Interior: ‘To date there have been no major episodes of looting, the problem will now come with the withdrawal of water’ (ANSA)
The alarm of geologists
A “desperate situation” in a vast territory on the hills in Emilia Romagna, which goes from Bologna to Cesena almost up to Rimini as a result of the “landlide bombing” after the flood. To tell ANSA is the regional president of the Order of Geologists, Paride Antolini. “We have always had an excellent mapping of the existing landslides but, now, the increase in phenomena in recent days has distorted the cartography and we are also recording events in unforeseen areas”, explains Antolini, speaking of “many roads that have completely disappeared and will never be not even repairable, with a track that needs to be completely redone”. Furthermore, many houses are isolated and also the farms. “The Apennines, with soft rocks, have shown all their fragility – continues the expert – in the hills of Cesenate the situation is difficult. I believe that in the most affected municipalities it will be difficult to predict travel throughout this summer”. A situation, he continues, “that in my 63 years I could never have imagined seeing or experiencing. This – says Antolini – is too much even for a geologist. Here it is a disaster”.
Bad weather in Emilia Romagna, road of Passo del Carnaio destroyed