Thousands of people in northern Italy are without homes after torrential rains caused rivers and creeks to overflow, flooding dozens of municipalities and leaving 14 dead in its wake.
Emilia-Romagna region was hit the hardest, with 36,600 people forced to leave their homes due to the floods. Of those, 27,775 are from the province of Ravenna on the Adriatic coast, and are among the hundreds of thousands affected by the destruction caused by the flood.
The unprecedented flooding led to hundreds of landslides and left what Emilia-Romagna’s vice president and head of Civil Protection Irene Priolo estimates to be “billions of euros” worth of destruction to homes and infrastructure. The disaster has also cut off transportation links to many isolated communities, making it difficult for emergency relief workers to reach those in need—such as the 7,000 people accepted into emergency shelters or public facilities like schools and sports centers.
In the Forlì municipality alone, seven isolated areas require rescue teams to drop off food, water, and medicine. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is advancing her return from the G7 in Hiroshima to tomorrow in order to visit the affected areas and convene an extraordinary Council of Ministers to approve economic aid and tax exemptions on Tuesday.
Despite prevailing weather conditions, rescuers and volunteers have been working hard to restore normalcy to the area. Terrifyingly, this includes re-establishing electrical networks, an effort that ended in tragedy when a helicopter crashed in Lugo with its four occupants, three of whom were unscathed, but taken to the hospital for further assessment.
While some relief does seem to be on the horizon, time will be needed to assess the full extent of the storm’s damage, as well as to answer the many questions arising from it. In the meantime, Emilia-Romagna’s authorities have maintained a “red alert” in the area for the rest of the weekend.