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Dark clouds dropped fresh rain on Friday in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, where flooding in recent days has left at least 14 dead and thousands more homeless.
Hundreds of rescue workers toiled through the night to evacuate residents, clear roads of mud and debris, restore electricity and repair telephone towers, while officials began to take a more complete account of the damage in the region that recently struggled with drought. .
With many fields still soaked by rain that experts described as almost unheard-of – some areas received nearly 20 inches in 36 hours, about half of the annual average – rail services were interrupted and many roads remained blocked.
“The situation is constantly changing because the rain continues,” Luca Cari, a spokesman for Italian firefighters, said in a telephone interview. “The water is still rising in some areas on the north coast, but although the water has receded, mud is everywhere and it is difficult to determine the damage.”
Heavy rains in early May have saturated the ground, and on Tuesday, a storm system moving slowly across Italy brought heavy rain to the same area. With the soil close to saturation, like a sponge that has been soaked in water, the rain has nowhere to go but to the lowest point, flooding streams, rivers and other low-lying areas.
Television images on Friday showed tree branches, garden furniture and other debris floating in muddy water in the streets of Cervia, a coastal town of about 30,000 people near Ravenna, where firefighters and the civil protection agency continue to evacuate residents and pets. rubber boat. Residents of Cervia removed the most dangerous debris from their courtyards, even though the water was up to their thighs.
Nearly two dozen rivers broke their banks this week in the vast area between the Apennine Mountains – where hilltop villages have been isolated by landslides – and the coast.
About 10,000 people have been evacuated during the disaster which is mostly attributed to a combination of climate change and human development. On Friday, the mayor asked residents to move to higher ground as the latest rainfall threatened flooding.
This weekend’s rainfall is not expected to match the levels seen in the past few days, but many areas remain vulnerable: Rivers are high and the ground is saturated, so rain could increase flooding or trigger landslides.
“This relatively short and small river that flows between the mountains and the sea has been dry for half a year,” said Marina Baldi, a climatologist with Italy’s National Research Council. “They can’t take much water,” he added.
Ms. Baldi said that such heavy rain usually hits Italy only once every 100 to 150 years, usually in autumn or winter, not in May. “This is an anomalous phenomenon,” he said, referring to the recent flooding.
The Italian government is expected to declare a state of emergency in the region at a cabinet meeting next week, but has set aside 30 million euros, about $32 million, to help with the response. Government ministers also raised the possibility of asking the European Union for help.
“At the moment we do not have an estimate of the damage,” Rita Nicolini, director of Civil Protection for the Emilia-Romagna region, told Italian news channel Sky TG24, noting, “We are still in the emergency phase.” He added that the initial estimate of damages of more than €1 billion should be “raised by at least ten.”
Ettore Prandini, president of the Coldiretti farmers’ association, said that calculating the damage to agriculture can only be done after the water recedes from the vineyards and orchards that grow kiwis, pears and apples, among others. He said many large pig farms are still underwater.
In Castel Bolognese, a town of 9,500 between Bologna and San Marino, a 75-year-old man drowned while talking on the phone with a neighbor who was trying to convince him to leave his street-level apartment as the water rose on Wednesday, according to one account.
The man, Giovanni Pavani, had put sandbags on the window sills and said that he felt safe, the neighbor, Marina Giacometti, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
His last minutes were terrible, according to the newspaper’s account. “I’m cold, I’m cold, the water is rising,” he told Ms. Giacometti. “I see floating furniture.” Then the line went silent.
The accident caused Formula 1 to cancel the region’s grand prix this weekend, saying flooding made it unsafe to continue the race at Imola, which is in Emilia-Romagna. Ferrari, which has its headquarters in the region, donated €1 million to the regional civil protection agency.
The decision to continue the concert by Bruce Springsteen met with some criticism on social media, even though it took place in Ferrara, far from the flooded area. “Maybe it can be delayed,” Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Emilia-Romagna region, told Italian television.
In the midst of this tragedy, residents have shown resilience and determination to overcome their anger and despair. On Thursday, a sunny day this week, volunteers cleaned the streets singing popular folk waltzes about love and nostalgia for the area. And the association of hoteliers in the beach town of Riccione, which was hit by floods this week, announced that hotels would be open and ready to welcome tourists next week.
Judson Jones contributed reports from Atlanta.
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