After the floods, a number of Italians are returning to their homes. There they stand deep in the mud. Those affected are presented with a picture of devastation – but new precipitation has already been announced.
Giuseppe Beltrame is standing in the front yard of his little house and can’t believe it. The mud that the extreme rains have washed through the town of Faenza reaches up to his shins. Beltrame points to the wall of the house and a brown line about two and a half meters high – that’s how high the water was when he was evacuated by rescue teams in a rubber dinghy with his wife and dog early Wednesday morning.
Beltrame returned today for the first time and sees the devastation: tables, chairs, chests of drawers lie on the floor in the living room. The refrigerator in the kitchen has fallen over. Everything is full of mud. Beltrame bursts into tears.
number of dead rises
After the storms and severe flooding that hit the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy at the beginning of the week, many people will start cleaning up on Thursday. Disbelief prevails. In just under two days, as much rain fell in some places as it normally does in half a year. The number of dead has now risen to 13 after the bodies of a woman and a man were found in the town of Russi in the province of Ravenna on Thursday, according to the Ansa and Adnkronos news agencies. Some politicians use the term “apocalypse”.
Giuseppe Beltrame had hoped to be able to hold out on the first floor of the terraced house. On Tuesday morning around three o’clock, when the ground floor was already under water, the civil defense also picked him up. “Three families on this street had to be flown away by helicopter,” he says, pointing down Via Don Giovanni Verità.
There Federica Pizzuto is now standing and crying. She too sees for the first time what the water has done to her newly renovated house. “We wanted to move in at the end of May. The new furniture is already there, as is a new kitchen,” she says, hiding her tears behind large sunglasses.
Faenza, in the province of Ravenna, is one of the most affected municipalities. At least 23 rivers burst their banks across the region, authorities said. The Lamone flows through Faenza, during the previous storms at the beginning of May the dams were still holding. Giuseppe Beltrame got “not a drop” back then, as he remembers.
Drought was followed by heavy rainfall – too much for the soil
In northern Italy there has been a great drought and dryness in recent months. The soil could not absorb the sudden and torrential rains, explains regional president Stefano Bonaccini. “Besides, the river beds haven’t been cleaned for many years. No wonder the water couldn’t drain away!” grumbles a passer-by as he walks past the houses of Beltrame and Pizzuto. “Those responsible should be punished!”
Because of the flooding, the electricity and mobile phone networks collapsed in many parts of the region. Many drinking water pipes were also affected. In Castel Bolognese, a good five kilometers from Faenza, a fire brigade tanker is parked in front of the sports hall and is distributing drinking water. People with plastic and glass bottles queue to get water to take home. “For drinking and for cooking,” explains a helper.
Dozens of cots have been set up inside the hall. Almost 80 evacuees slept here on Thursday night, including a number of old people who did not stay with friends or relatives. Many guests are expected again on Friday night, says a woman from civil protection. Soldiers have their mattresses and backpacks lying on the stands in the hall, and the Italian army is also helping after the natural disaster.
The sympathy is great in the Mediterranean country. All other regions sent helpers, experts and equipment to Emilia-Romagna and Marche, where floods had also occurred. Regional President Bonaccini put the damage at several billion euros, as he said on Italian television.
He asked the government for quick help. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also assured him of this from Japan, where she is taking part in the G7 summit. In a telegram to the Archbishop of Bologna, Pope Francis said he was “urging consolation for the injured and those suffering the consequences of the grave accident”.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office had warned German travelers or Germans living in Italy about the dangers of flooding and landslides. You should follow the current situation on local and social media and follow the instructions of the local authorities.
Demand for better protection concepts
The Italian civil protection minister, Nello Musumeci, emphasized that due to the increasingly extreme weather conditions – drought on the one hand and storms on the other – completely new concepts are needed to make inhabited areas safer. It could take eight to twelve months for such plans to be drawn up, the minister said.
New rain has already been announced for the next few days in the areas around the affected cities such as Faenza, Ravenna, Forlì and Cesena. Giuseppe Beltrame stands in the mud in his living room, shakes his head and then picks up a pot of flowers that has remained reasonably intact. “Maybe a sign of a new beginning…” he says. He has tears in his eyes.
Balkan countries are also affected by flooding
Not only Italy is suffering from the water masses, also in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia there were floods as a result of heavy rainfall. In the small Croatian town of Sisak, 60 kilometers south of Zagreb, the Sava River burst its banks and flooded the stables of a therapeutic horse riding club on Thursday. All horses were brought to safety unharmed, Croatian television HRT reported.
The Croatian towns of Karlovac, Petrinja, Hrvatska Kostajnica, Gracac and Obrovac have also struggled with flooding in recent days. There were no victims. The situation in north-west Bosnia was also described as difficult. The Una and Glina rivers caused floods in the towns of Bihac, Velika Kladusa and Bosanska Krupa. In Novi Sad, the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, some downtown boulevards were under water on Wednesday evening. There was traffic chaos and several accidents.