FAENZA (dpa-AFX) – In Emilia-Romagna, the death toll from the severe flooding is increasing – and after only a brief pause in the rain, the water again. Massimo Isola, mayor of the city of Faenza, spoke of an “epochal accident” on Italian television on Friday with regard to the flooding and the many landslides. Shortly before, the body of an elderly man had been found in his community, according to media reports, in the mud in front of his house. The man is the 14th dead after the severe storms in northern Italy.
While in some places people were busy cleaning up and destroyed pieces of furniture and other belongings were piled up in front of the houses, the highest alert level continued to prevail.
The situation worsened again on Friday, especially around the city of Ravenna. After it started raining again, rivers burst their banks again. Water flowed across an expressway directly towards the city center, as TV footage showed. Many residents of the city near the Adriatic Sea were asked to leave their homes, and police officers went door to door. According to the media, more than 20,000 people were evacuated in Ravenna alone.
The recent rains increased concerns for many people. The rains should not be “comparable” to those that took on historic proportions at the beginning of the week and led to the catastrophic consequences, said Irene Priolo, the region’s vice-president, on Italian television. Above all, the rain could lead to further landslides.
In a district of the municipality of Sarsina, more than 300 people were cut off from the outside world, as Mayor Enrico Cangini said, according to the Ansa news agency. Of the four streets that led to their houses, only one could be used by emergency vehicles – they brought drinking water with a tank, among other things. “Some people were evacuated by helicopter,” Cangini said.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the Canale Emiliano Romagnolo, an artificial canal that cuts across the region, has overflowed in places. People who lived nearby were asked to go to higher floors. Meanwhile, workers are using excavators to try and close broken dams.
Hundreds of emergency services from the fire brigade, civil defense, military and other organizations as well as countless volunteers from all parts of Italy have been working in Emilia-Romagna for days. For the next few days, the highest alert level will remain in many places.
While the areas around Imola, Forli, Cesena and Ravenna were hit hard, places on the Adriatic coast that are particularly popular with tourists, such as Rimini, got off relatively lightly. Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè reported on Friday: “The only positive news, if one can speak of positive at all about this tragedy, is that hotels and the coastal strip were less badly damaged than the areas inland.”/msw/DP/ wet