The extent of devastating floods in northern Italy has been laid bare in shocking aerial footage. Exceptional rains on Wednesday in a drought-struck region of northern Italy swelled rivers over their banks has killed at least nine people and forced the evacuation of thousands. It has also prompted officials to warn that Italy needs a national plan to combat climate change-induced flooding.
Aerial footage posted by the Italian firefighters showed the extensive area affected by the dreadful floods which continued to get worse overnight.
A 60-year-old woman was found dead on a beach after her body had been dragged down a swollen river for 20 kilometres.
Her husband was also found dead near their house earlier on Wednesday.
The heavy rains also forced Formula One to cancel this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to not overtax emergency crews that were already stretched thin in responding to the rivers of mud that have torn through the region, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and homes.
Days of rainstorms stretched across a broad swath of northern Italy and the Balkans, where “apocalyptic” floods, landslides and evacuations were also reported in Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia.
On Wednesday evening, authorities in the province of Ravenna, a tourist town famed for its Byzantine-era mosaics, about 14,000 people were ordered to leave their homes as a precaution because of fears that three rivers could overflow their banks.
Among the dead was a farmer who defied floodwaters to try to save equipment on his property, officials said. His wife was among the missing.
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Rescue helicopters plucked people from rooftops as floodwaters rose ever higher in homes. In one rescue, a coast guard member pulled a woman out through a skylight from her home and held her tight as the two were winched to a hovering helicopter and pulled inside.
Gian Luca Zattini, mayor of Forli’, one of the hardest-hit towns, told Sky TG24 TV: “Even upper floors aren’t safe any more.”
Italian Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci called for a new nationwide hydraulic engineering plan to adapt to the impact of increasing incidents of floods and landslides. At a briefing, he noted that an average of 200 millimetres (7.9 inches) of rain had fallen in 36 hours in the region, with some areas registering 500 millimetres (19.7 inches) in that period.
He said: “If you consider that this region averages 1,000 millimetres (39.3 inches) of rain in a year, you realise the impact that these rains have had in these hours.”
Citing the November landslide in Ischia, which killed a dozen people, he said that Italy is increasingly experiencing tropical weather seen in parts of Africa and other areas around the world, with long periods of drought punctuated by intense rainfall that can’t be absorbed by the soil.
Compounding Italy’s vulnerability to climate-change-induced flooding are already fragile hydrological conditions in much of the country. Italy also must grapple with the decades-long practice of people building in areas prone to mudslides or floods — homes that are often allowed to stay in place thanks to occasional government amnesties.
Hillsides, pounded by the rain, gave way in many parts of Emilia-Romagna. In 48 towns or hamlets, a total of 250 mudslides were reported by residents, state television said. Walls of mud, rushing down, toppled trees and buckled roads in their path.
Musumeci said 50,000 people lost electricity and more than 100,000 lost cellphone or landline use.
Many residents evacuating homes put vital belongings in the rubber boats they’d normally tow each summer to the region’s flourishing beach resorts on the Adriatic Sea and pulled them through deluged streets.
Premier Giorgia Meloni, who was traveling to the G7 meeting in Japan, said the government was monitoring the situation and was prepared to approve emergency aid.
