Water had never scared them. Farmers, small entrepreneurs, ordinary people, waited for water at certain times of the year. They needed it for the fields, for small businesses, to live. A year ago, from the first days of May and for the following 15 days, the sky sent him so much that it overflowed, violently, and took 15 people away. Innocent victims, deceased along an endless swamp of 50 Municipalities. Flood waves of rivers and rivulets, storms, shattered embankments. Only 23 rivers flooded. They took away those lives as well as anything else.
To be precise, as the Civil Protection technicians say, the disaster developed from 3 to 17 May. The “solatia, sweet country” Region whatever he calls it Giovanni Pascoli, where the tricolor was born, where i companions socialists and communists have created a socio-economic model that has continued since the post-war period and has been overwhelmed by catastrophic events. It's too sophisticated around here to talk about climate change, here everything is more genuine and spontaneous. It has been known for centuries that throughout Emilia Romagna there are kilometers of land below sea level. The descriptions of Giovanni Guareschi about the flooding of the Po near Brescello, have come true but in a much less romantic way than how Peppone and Don Camillo deal with them.
Investigations and damages
Nature has been violent, vile, towards a people who have always respected it. Death, billions in damages and after a year only a file in the hands of the judges of Forlì and Ravenna for manslaughter against unknown persons. Compensations are slow, in Faenza there are people still outside their homes. In a few days the Commission of experts will be appointed which will study the causes of the disaster in more depth and perhaps tell us what was not done and who should have done it. Perhaps the Prosecutor's Office will issue some warrants. The flood – it was the first judgment – was caused by gods climate changes, from a cyclone that arrived from Africa with exceptional quantities of water that did not manage to go to the sea.
But were rivers and streams protected? On average, what do you do to avoid losing your life when these events occur? Extraordinary, yes, unexpected, but which need adequate prevention, suitable tools to warn people in advance. These are themes that we find in the school books of our children and grandchildren now. The list of Italian tragedies is the thickest in Europe. To still say Italy is fragile is almost a joke.
The prevention plan is on 30 June 2024
From today and in the days to come there will be opportunities for remembrance and condolence. For damages we are stuck at over 8 billion euros, with half for roads, bridges, river banks and canals. The general Francesco Paolo Figliuolo as Extraordinary Commissioner he has supervision over everything that needs to be done. A first prevention plan has been filed in the Region. It was prepared by the Po basin Authority, with the Region itself and the extraordinary police station. The final text should be ready by 30nd June.
“We will give more space to the rivers, strengthening the containment of floods upstream, setting back the current embankments and making them resistant to overflowing. Develop and implement innovative strategies for the phenomena of slope instability, given the high number of landslides, over 80 thousand, mostly newly activated following the events of last May" we read in the document. A schedule of things to do, to share with the territories. Like a less gloomy framework against climate conspiracies, to which someone, but in Rome, must put a solid frame.
