The death toll from a powerful flood in Italy increases, 13 people became victims of the elements (video)

Italy is experiencing the worst flooding in 100 years. People are locked in their homes, 13 people have died, more than 20,000 have lost their homes in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna.

Last year the country experienced a record drought, writes The Guardian, and in this one and a half days, a six-month rainfall fell, 23 rivers overflowed their banks, 40 settlements were under water. Streets, cars, fields and villas are flooded. 280 cases of soil shifts have already been recorded.

Due to heavy rains, almost all the rivers between the northeast coast of Rimini and the city of Bologna, which are 115 km from each other, overflowed their banks. City blocks and agricultural lands were flooded, 400 roads were damaged. About 280 landslides occurred during the night, and a decision was made to evacuate. Roberta Lazzarini, 71, from Botteghino di Zocca, south of Bologna, says, quoted by the BBC:

“It was a very difficult 48 hours. Water and mud flooded our entire village. I have never seen anything like this here. We were trapped in the house and did not know what to do. I just hope this does not happen again.”

The Italian Armed Forces and the Coast Guard have joined the rescue effort. Helicopters and inflatable boats are involved in the evacuation to reach houses surrounded by water on all sides. Large-scale cleaning and restoration work has already begun in many areas. Power has been partially restored, authorities said, but some 27,000 people are still without electricity.

Among the dead is an elderly couple locked in their home in Cava, a village in the province of Forlì-Cesena. Their neighbor says:

“We heard their cries for help. We tried to get them out, but it was no use.”

An 80-year-old man drowned in his basement after going to get things, and a married couple, identified as Sauro Manuzzi and Marinella Maraldi, who owned an herbal company, were hit by flooding in a field across from their home. The body of Maraldi, 70, was swept 12 miles downriver before being found on a beach along the Adriatic coast. A 76-year-old man was killed by a landslide in his garden, and another man, aged 43, died after falling into a well while trying to pump water from his property.

Stefano Bonacchini, mayor of Emilia-Romagna, compared the devastation to the 2012 earthquake that killed 28 people:

“The damage will be less quantitatively, but it will amount to several billion euros. We will restore everything as we did after the earthquake.”

The Formula 1 Grand Prix due to take place this weekend in Imola, in the Emilia-Romagna region, has been canceled due to the risk of flooding the nearby Santerno River. On Tuesday, many areas around the track used for parking and watching the race were flooded.

Minister of Civil Protection Nello Musumechi said that tropical climatic conditions have already reached Italy, with 20 cm of rainfall in 36 hours and up to 50 cm in some areas:

“Soil that remains dry for a long time eventually hardens, which drastically limits its ability to absorb water.”

He notes that regional dams have not been built for 40 years, and a new approach to hydraulic engineering is needed. Georgia Prime Minister Meloni’s government will hold a crisis meeting next Tuesday.

Pierluigi Randi, president of the weather experts association Ampro, said it was Italy’s worst flood in a century. This came after flooding in Emilia-Romagna and parts of the Marche in early May, which killed two people. Six months of rain fell in two weeks. “We need to prepare, this is a climate crisis,” Randy said.

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