Pesaro, 17 May 2023 – Pesaro she went to sleep with the Leaf near flood peak and the Gene still threateningfew certainties about tomorrow and the hope that certain dire predictions are wrong.
Flooding in Pesaro: a semi-flooded car in via Terzi, Muraglia area
She left behind a day of damage and flooding along the entire length of the river, but without the dreaded flood. He still doesn’t know if he will have escaped this time too, as already happened in January. And if at the beginning of the year it was the middle and lower part of the valley that swelled the river, this time the biggest threat came from upstream, after 12 uninterrupted hours of rain that dumped enormous quantities of water on the ground.
At 13 at the entrance 400 cubic meters of water were recorded at Lake Mercatale, a flow rate equivalent to that of the Po in Cremona these days. And it went on like this for hours. The reservoir, partially and suitably emptied previously, was able to laminate three million cubic metres, but it was necessary to unload for a long time a flow rate of 250 cubic meters per second.
Tip the flood reached Pesaro in mid-afternoon, with about 600 cubic meters per second: the hydrometer at the railway bridge recorded a maximum level of 4.65 meters (in January it had reached 5.20), which remained constant for a long time, so much so that last night it had only dropped by a few centimetres. The river risked overflowing upstream of Pesaro, reaching in several places almost at the level of the bank. Nonetheless, the water invaded the well-known areas, especially the area around the toll booth, flooding industrial and artisan areas and homes.
Also this time the mass of water came from the discharge of the Case Bruciate ditch, which the river used as an outlet. The rolling area of Ca’ Paci has invaded almost 300,000 cubic meters of water, that of the riding track half and much more has poured into the surrounding land. The road system was long disrupted by flooding. Further upstream, the Apsa of Macerata Feltria flooded near the confluence, causing considerable damage. The Casinina ring road was closed for a long time. The river caused flooding in Borgo Massano (also affecting several houses), it surmounted and risked destroying the recently renovated walkway of the Badia, spreading in all the floodplain areas and damaging several crops; it devoured a piece of the access road to the Ca’ Spezie control unit.
Remarkable the amount of rain that fell up to 8pm yesterday: 90 millimeters in Pesaro (one and a half times the monthly average for May), 90 in Mercatale, 65 in Carpegna, 72 in Arzilla (the stream also caused several floods), 58 in Urbino.
Values close to 100 millimeters are recorded in various areas on the border with the tormented Romagna. More contained rains, but still consistent, along the Metauro and Cesano branches. Today another field day, given that from the night it started raining heavily again. Since the beginning of the year, 500 millimeters have fallen on Pesaro. In 2022 it took 10 months to reach that figure.