13 people have died in Italy

“Flooding of rivers and streams has brought the region to its knees,” Italian daily Corriere della Sera wrote of the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. The highest alert level remains in effect there on Thursday. In Emilia-Romagna, the death toll has now risen to 13, with many more missing. The provinces of Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena and Rimini have been hit hard – especially the cities of Faenza, Cesena and Forlì.

There is also a state of emergency in the province of Bologna. Neighboring March has also experienced floods due to continuous rains. Although there will be no more rain on Thursday, Italian civil defense should still be on alert.

Floods, landslides, blocked roads

In Emilia-Romagna, nearly two dozen rivers overflowed their banks between Tuesday and Wednesday, 36 towns and communities were flooded, and 48 local governments declared landslides. Meanwhile, around 880 firefighters are still on duty in the area along with around 330 emergency vehicles, the fire brigade said. About 50,000 people were temporarily without electricity and 100,000 without mobile phone network, according to civil defense on Wednesday.

Pictures and videos show entire cities under water and streets covered in mud. In the province of Ravenna, an immediate evacuation order was issued due to the high risk of flooding.

The Foreign Office provides travel advice for Italy

The Federal Foreign Office (AA) issued a travel advisory for Italy on Wednesday due to “severe weather” and heavy rain. There are restrictions on regional rail transport. “There is a risk of flooding and landslides in the interior of the country; storm surges may develop along the entire coast, including central and southern Italy,” the Foreign Office said. Emilia-Romagna and Sicily (each on high alert) are currently on particular alert.

Thousands of people have already been brought to safer places due to the rains. In the city of Faenza, in the province of Ravenna, people ran to the roofs of their houses and waited there for emergency services. “It’s the end of the world,” wrote Mayor Gian Luca Zattini on Facebook. His city is “on the ground”. According to Italian media reports, the regional president of Emilia-Romagna, Stefano Bonacini, is now estimating the damage to be in the billions of euros.

First cleanup – damage to agriculture

However, the first phase of cleaning work has started in some places. According to media reports, thousands of volunteers have flocked to the affected areas to help.

The vast fields between Forli and Rimini were also badly affected by storm damage. The Italian agricultural association Coldretti spoke of “incalculable damage to agriculture”. Apart from human suffering, the floods also “destroyed valuable agricultural land”. The lives of companies and the workers who depend on them are at stake.

Extreme weather haunts northern Italy

Italy has been repeatedly hit by extreme weather this year: it rained heavily in early spring, when rivers and lakes carried exceptionally little water, while it was very dry in winter.

“Floods and droughts are complementary phenomena that do not cancel each other,” explained climate researcher Massimiliano Baschi of the Italian National Research Council in “Corriere della Sera”. “Soils have been losing moisture for months. But as they dry out, they can’t absorb the rainwater that pours down on dry areas during these hours, leading to flooding.”