Buses were sent to help evacuate residents of Vilanova di Ravenna, Filetto and Roncalcici after the Limoni River overflowed.
Nearly two dozen streams and rivers in the southeastern Emilia-Romagna region overflowed after heavy rains earlier this week flooded entire neighborhoods and farmlands.
More than 10,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and hundreds of landslides have been reported, according to district officials.
The rain stopped mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and forecasters said they weren’t expecting much rain on Thursday.
“But with six months of rain falling in 36 hours compared to record rains two weeks ago, no region can hold out,” Emilia-Romagna Governor Stefano Bonaccini told LA. -7 Wednesday night.
“We counted about two billion dollars of damage… the earth no longer absorbs anything,” Bonaccini added.
Two people died in the same area earlier this month after 48 hours of nearly continuous rain.
The Italian armed forces and coast guard joined the emergency efforts, deploying helicopters to rescue people from their homes and dinghies to reach houses besieged by water from all directions.
thick sludge
As water levels dropped in some areas, people were busy clearing homes and streets covered in thick mud and scattered rubble.
“I’ve lived here since 1979, I’ve seen floods, but I’ve never seen anything like it,” Cesena resident Eduardo Amadori told AFP on Wednesday.
Thousands of farms were damaged in fertile agricultural areas, but Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said the waters needed to recede so the government could count the losses.
The organizers of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the sixth stage of the Formula 1 World Championship, which was scheduled for this weekend at the famous Imola circuit, announced on Wednesday that the race “will not take place” in due to flooding.
The heavy rains came following a drought that affected large parts of northern Italy last winter, in addition to a record shortage of rain last summer that affected agricultural crops.
“We will have to get used to it in the future because unfortunately in recent years such heavy rains often fall,” air force meteorologist Paolo Capizzi told AFP.
He added that global warming could not be directly blamed, but that “the ever-increasing frequency of this phenomenon could clearly be a consequence of ongoing climate change”.
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