Forli– “The acute emergency phase has passed,” says the head of civil protection Fabrizio Curcio. But he warns that there is still much to do: «Now we will have to face the theme of recovery in a deeply wounded territory». From rivers to the isolation of small towns in the Apennines. Today he arrives in this wounded territory Sergio Mattarella. The President of the Republic will land in Forlì in the morning and then go by helicopter to Modigliana, flying over the areas most affected by the flood and still devastated by landslides. At 11, in Piazza Saffi in the heart of Forlì, the meeting with the volunteers involved in this emergency. Then the stop in Ravennawhere he will also meet some landlords who have agreed to have their land flooded to save the city. Then to Lugo, to visit the Rossini Theater invaded by mud and which is being reborn thanks to its subscribers. Finally, in the afternoon, will be in Faenza with the local mayors. “I think it’s a beautiful message,” says the president of the region Stefano Bonaccini enthusiastically. The view from above and the meetings with those who are in the area to see for themselves how deep the wound left by the flood in Romagna is. Starting with the 15 dead of this tragedy. And then the people still out of their homes, landslides and an economy, starting with agriculture, on its knees.
The damage
Difficult to make a precise estimate. To tempt us is the vice president of the region with responsibility for civil protection Irene Priolo who speaks of “at least 7 billion”, which could even go further by equaling, or even exceeding, the 12 billion in damages caused by the 2012 earthquake. «It is possible – he says -, with the earthquake, in fact, agricultural enterprises, roads, railways and infrastructures were not involved. Furthermore, here there are also the damages to rivers and canals of the reclamation consortia ». The president of the region Stefano Bonaccini has hypothesized that at least one billion will be needed only for the roads “earthquake” by the flood.
Homeless
No overall data was provided yesterday. Until three days ago there were 20,000. For the province of Ravenna alone, the prefecture still speaks of 5,500 evacuees, 2,000 in Faenza alone. The vast majority prefer to go to friends or relatives. On the other hand, 1128 are hosted in municipal structures or hotels.
road network
From above, the President of the Republic will see a territory that seems to have just been hit by an earthquake. “At one time such a quantity of active landslides had never been seen,” they say in the Region. The Civil Protection Department has surveyed 758 major landslides, as well as thousands of micro-landslides. The most affected areas: the province of Forlì-Cesena, where there are 351, and the Ravenna area where there are 248. As a direct consequence, the entire road system has collapsed, especially the reticular one that allows you to reach the small towns and hamlets of the Apennines, where some scattered houses are still isolated. The asphalt skipped or literally sunk into the void makes 772 municipal and provincial roads inaccessible: 470 totally, another 302 only partially. Also in this case the most affected area is the province of Forlì-Cesena with 312 closed to traffic: 102 partially and 210 totally. Various railway sections were also skipped, while only yesterday the Forlì-Faenza line was reopened which practically cut the Adriatic line up to Bologna in two, also blocking high-speed trains.
Rivers flooded
From the data of the regional ARPA, which will soon provide a complete report, in the two floods of 5 and 16 May 350 million cubic meters of water fell over an area of 800 square kilometres. “It is – says Sandro Nanni, head of the Meteo-Climate service – about 60% of the average rainfall for the whole year”. From the Savio to the Lamone, from the Santerno to the Idice, there are 23 rivers that have not withstood this level of rainfall and have broken their banks and at the same time overflowed in the points where the banks have resisted.
Agriculture
The consequences for agriculture are incalculable, also because many fields are still invaded by water which, 15 days after the flood, is struggling to flow. Coldiretti estimates that “the production of at least 400 million kilos of wheat has been lost in a region that produces a third of all national soft wheat”. But the standing water is also rotting the roots of fruit trees. An excellence of this land which from orographically swampy air has become the “fruit valley”, specialized in the production of apricots, peaches, kiwis, pears and apples. With so much water, the harvest “will be compromised for the next four or five years”. And the repercussions on employment could also be heavy. “In the agri-food chain – always estimates Coldiretti – at least 50 thousand jobs are at risk”