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Rescue crews worked Thursday to reach towns and villages in northern Italy still isolated by heavy rain and flooding, as the death toll rose to 13 and authorities began mapping out cleanup and reconstruction plans.
The extreme weather behind this week’s disaster – a drought characterized by 36 hours of torrential rain, two weeks after another downpour – caused two dozen rivers and tributaries to burst their banks. The power of the water sent torrents of mud tearing through all the cities of Emilia-Romagna, flooding storefronts and basements.
The local mayor warned that some remote villages were still cut off as landslides made roads impassable and telephone service remained cut off. That has prevented the rescue team from reaching the residents and the authorities from knowing the full scope of the needs, said the Mayor of Mercato Seraceno Monica Rossi.
“If it rains again, the situation will be tragic,” Rossi told Sky TG24, standing on the road with pieces lost in the landslide.
People are found dead in their homes
The death toll rose to 13 on Thursday when four more bodies were found. In the small town of Russi, two men, aged 73 and 71, were found dead together in their home, local authorities said.
As of Thursday morning, parts of the city of Faenza were still underwater, with cars submerged and basements flooded with thick mud. One family standing on their balcony said they had no electricity, gas or food. Other residents took refuge in the local gymnasium, where soldiers set up beds on the basketball court for new arrivals.
“At some point, they told everyone to leave the area, and about an hour later, we heard a loud noise,” Faenza resident Claudia, 29, said Thursday, recalling on Wednesday that the nearby Lamone river had burst. “The water just flooded everything.”
More than 10,000 people fled their homes, some removed from roofs or balconies by rescue helicopters and others by boat. One family with a 20-day-old baby was rescued Thursday morning, Cesena Mayor Enzo Lattuca said. Others packed their belongings into inflatable pools that floated in the muddy river that used to be a road.
But residents in other towns, such as Castel Bolognese, began cleaning up as the water receded, with residents removing mud-filled basements and storefronts.
Damage ‘incalculable’
The dry region has been estimated to have cost around one billion euros due to heavy rains earlier this month, but the regional president, Stefano Bonaccini, said the losses are now in the billions due to widespread damage to farmland, shops and infrastructure.
Italian farm lobby Coldiretti said more than 5,000 farms with greenhouses, nurseries and stables had been flooded, covering thousands of hectares of vineyards, orchards, vegetable gardens and wheat fields. He said the damage was “incalculable”, because not only the current crop, but also future crops, due to permanent damage to the roots from the “suffocating” mud from the runoff.
Bonaccini asked the national government to declare a state of emergency, which could happen when the Cabinet meets next week after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni returns from the Group of Seven summit in Japan. Now, the region says it is working on reconstruction efforts and restoring essential infrastructure.
“It will take a lot of work” to recover, Bonaccini told his daily briefing.
Lots of heavy rain
The Superior Institute for Environmental Protection and Research has identified Emilia-Romagna as one of the Italian regions most at risk of flooding, where the region and the population face the danger of a “danger scenario” greater than the rest of the country.
The eastern part of the most difficult region, which lies between the Apennine mountain chain and the Adriatic Sea, is first hit by heavy rains in early May. The second rain is testing the ability of parched land to absorb water, the agency said, adding that rising sea levels and coastal winds may also cause flooding of rivers and tributaries.
Pope Francis sent a telegram of condolences to the people of Emilia-Romagna, assuring them of their prayers, the Vatican said Thursday.
Italy is not the only one dealing with heavy rain, as parts of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia also reported floods and landslides requiring evacuation.
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