Eight people died and thousands were evacuated after heavy rains caused devastation across Italy's northern Emilia Romagna region, while this weekend's Imola Grand Prix was cancelled, officials said on Wednesday.
"The city is on its knees, devastated and in pain," said Gian Luca Zattini, the mayor of Forli, a city near Bologna where three people were confirmed dead earlier on Wednesday. "It's the end of the world."
Emilia Romagna's vice president, Irene Priolo, later told reporters that a total of eight people had died, with several others missing.
Two of the bodies in Forli were recovered by divers on Wednesday morning, as part of a huge rescue effort involving emergency services and the armed forces.
Emilia Romagna, one of Italy's richest regions, had already been hit by heavy rain just a fortnight ago, causing severe floods that left two dead.
This time, around 50 centimetres (20 inches) of rain fell within 36 hours in Forli, Cesena and Ravenna - around half the normal annual rainfall, a situation "with few precedents", Italy's Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said.
"It is still a very critical situation," he told reporters, adding that while the rain was still falling, it was expected to lighten during the day.
The flooding caused the cancellation of the Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which had been set for on Sunday in Imola.
Organisers said they could not guarantee the safety of fans, teams and staff.
"It would not be right to put further pressure on the local authorities and emergency services at this difficult time," they said.
Regional President Stefano Bonaccini said Emilia Romagna had been hit "like an earthquake".
Rescue workers had worked through the night to save children, the elderly and the disabled from the rising waters.
"We're scared, this time we're scared," said Simona Matassoni, the owner of the Hotel Savio in Cesena, which has so far escaped flooding.
"I was born here, I've seen lots of full rivers, but never anything like this," she told AFP by telephone on Wednesday morning, adding that it was still raining.
"At the moment we're crossing our fingers... but another flood is expected, so who knows (what will happen)."
Some 3,000 people had been evacuated from their homes in Bologna, while the mayor of Ravenna said some 5,000 people were being evacuated as a precaution.
50,000 homes were without electricity on Wednesday and some 100,000 mobile users were without service.
All rivers in the region had broken their banks between Tuesday and Wednesday, with 36 local authorities reported flooding and 48 reporting landslides.
The civil protection agency urged "maximum caution", as mayors warned people to stay on high ground.
In Forli, an AFP photographer saw people in a state of shock as they fled on Tuesday night through floodwaters in the dark in their bare feet.
Elsewhere, locals in Cesena swam down a road to rescue a three-year-old child and a man was seen wading through high water with his cat.
The heavy rains follow a drought that affected much of northern Italy last winter, and a record lack of rain last summer.
"We have to get used to it for the future, because unfortunately in recent years it often happens that these extreme rainfalls arrive," Air Force meteorologist Paolo Capizzi told AFP.
He said it could not directly be blamed on global warming but the "ever-increasing frequency of these phenomenon can obviously be the consequence of ongoing climate change".
Source The Local It
BDST: 1029 HRS, MAY 18, 2023
MSK
