They are 9 confirmed victims of the flood that hit Emilia Romagna, but the missing are still tens and thousands of people left homeless. While the rain gives some respite, the damage count also begins. I am 24 Municipalities flooded, the worst situation is in Faenza, Cesena and Forlì. Some districts of Bologna are also under water, while a state of emergency has been declared in Rimini. All rivers in the region are flooded.
“A few days before the anniversary of the 2012 earthquake this, for us, is as if it were a new earthquake", the president of the Region Stefano Bonaccini said yesterdaytalking about what happened.
“In 36 hours – said the governor – it fell the water of six months on land that no longer absorbs anything" because "we are coming from weeks and months of drought with two opposing phenomena that multiply the damage. We have 250 landslides, almost 400 roads either destroyed or unusable and interrupted, in many places there was a simultaneous lack of electricity and water and the telephones are unable to communicate. Now it's a question of sheltering anyone, even the last ones left isolated, we don't know how many there are but we believe not many people because we have reached almost all possible places".
“In the span of 24 hours they fell as far as 200mm of rain above Emilia-Romagna, with maximum intensities in the band between Monghidoro, Civitella di Romagna and Castrocaro Terme”, confirmed to Ansa Paola Salvati, of the Research Institute for Hydrogeological Protection of the National Research Council. "The peculiarity of the event, which has been classified as extreme based on data from the last 20 years, is that it is continuing in the same area already hit two weeks ago," she explained.
Emilia Romagna: the situation on May 18th
Although the rain is giving a break, even for today it was red alert confirmed due to floods of rivers and landslides throughout Romagna, the Bologna and Modena plains, the mountain hills of central Emilia and Bologna. Orange alert on the Ferrara plain and coast. Schools remain closed.
In the night new floods in Romagna, particularly in the area of Ravenna. The rift between Reda and Fossolo overloaded the Emilia-Romagna canal and the entire secondary network of consortium canals, with water invading significant parts of the countryside: flooding in Russi, Godo, San Pancrazio and Villanova di Ravenna. During the night the Municipality of Ravenna intervened, with the support of the local police, informing the citizens of Villanova, inviting them to go to the upper floors, offering those who were unable to access the first floor of the civic center or accommodation at the Cinemacity. A was issued this morning Immediate evacuation order to people and companies of Villanova of Ravenna, Filetto e Roar us, due to the risk of flooding caused by the breaking of the Lamone between Reda and Fossolo.
Emilia Romagna: today the CDM, a 20 million decree
Palazzo Chigi has announced that it will be held Tuesday May 23, at 11 am the Council of Ministers on the bad weather emergency which affected some regions of the Centre-North, especially Emilia Romagna. A decree law could arrive on the table of ministers to help the region, with the Government ready to allocate the first 20 million euro. The first responses to the emergency should find a place within the provision, including social safety nets for agricultural workers, deferment of mortgage installments, suspension of tax obligations and immediately thirty million in total for Emilia Romagna.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has ensured maximum availability to the areas affected by the flood.
Still trains on tilt
The situation remains complicated railway line. With a note Trenitalia informs that: “Circulation is still severely slowed down. High-speed trains may undergo variations and record a longer journey time up to 150 minutes. InterCity and Regional trains traveling on the conventional line travel with a precautionary reduction in speed in the section concerned and can record a longer journey time of up to 30 minutes. InterCity and Regional trains previously involved in the traffic slowdown recorded longer journey times of up to 90 minutes.
