Flood nightmare hits Italian towns with four dead
Flood nightmare hits Italian towns with four dead, thousands evacuated and rescue teams having to helicopter families to safety from rooftops or SWIM through streets to reach them
- Families were forced to climb onto the roofs of homes as they awaited rescue
- In the hardest-hit Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, four people have died
At least four people have died and thousands have been evacuated from their homes across northern Italy today as devastating floods triggered by torrential rain tore through dozens of towns.
Desperate families – including young children and the elderly – were forced to climb onto the roofs of their homes as they waited anxiously for rescuers to reach them on helicopters.
In the city of Cesena, in the hardest-hit northern Emilia-Romagna region, locals were forced to swim through the submerged streets, past sunken cars and floating furniture, to reach higher ground.
Video shows one desperate mother clinging to her young daughter while frantically waving for help as the water continued to rise up to her chest outside her home. Two men were seen racing to swim to reach the pair, with one placing the young girl above his head so that she couldn’t get swept away in the fast-moving waters.
The girl was passed into the arms of other rescuers standing on a banking, while other neighbours helped her mother to safety after the Savio River burst its banks.
But for some, the devastating floods were deadly, with four people killed so far in the Emilia-Romagna region as the flooding ripped through their homes and turned streets into rivers.
Video shows one desperate mother clinging to her young daughter while frantically waving for help as the water continued to rise up to her chest outside her home
Two men were seen racing to swim to reach the pair, with one placing the young girl above his head (centre) so that she couldn’t get swept away in the fast-moving waters
In the city of Cesena, in the hardest-hit northern Emilia-Romagna region, locals were forced to swim through the submerged streets, past sunken cars and floating furniture, to reach higher ground (pictured)
A 70-year-old man died in his flooded home in the countryside outside Cesena while his wife was rescued.
Another man was found dead in his home in Forli after the Montone river burst its banks. The town’s mayor said the floods are the ‘worst situation they have ever experienced’.
Four people are missing from the region as rescuers desperately search for those trapped in their homes after rivers swollen by days of downpours wreaked havoc on towns across the north.
Firefighters were able to rescue a family with a four-month-old baby and a disabled man in the northern province of Pesaro-Urbino.
More families were plucked from their rooftops and brought to safety by the firefighters in the deluged north, including a couple and their two young daughters.
The nearly 100,000 residents of Cesena were told to avoid the temptation to view the raging waters and not to stay on ground floors if they lived near the river.
‘Use prudence, don’t be curious, so disaster doesn’t turn into tragedy,’ Cesena mayor Enzo Lattuca said on Rai state TV.
In all, some 900 people in flooded areas of northern Italy were evacuated by late Tuesday night, some taking shelter in gyms or schools.
Two men were seen racing to swim to reach the mother and her young daughter in Cesana
The girl was passed into the arms of other rescuers standing on a banking, while other neighbours helped her mother to safety after the Savio River burst its banks
Rescuers take people to safety during rescue operations, in Forli, Italy after floods hit Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region, on Wednesday
In the tourist town of Ravenna in north-east Italy, authorities urged residents to move to upper storeys of buildings to ride out the storm. One person died there after their car became submerged in the water.
In Riccione, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, the mayor warned people to stay home as some took to rubber dinghies to navigate submerged streets.
In the area between Ancona, a major Adriatic port, and Pesaro-Urbino, two towns popular with tourists, firefighters carried out 80 interventions for local flooding, fallen trees and mudslides and rescued motorists in difficulty, the corps said in a tweet.
Meteorologists say Italy can expect several more days of heavy rain, pummelling the north which had for weeks been suffering a shortfall of precipitation for weeks.
Train travel was halted on the Bologna-Ancona and the Ravenna-Faenza routes, Italian media said.
Rescuers wade through floodwaters during rescue operations in Forli, Italy after floods hit Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region in the early hours of Wednesday morning
Firefighters and rescuers are seen next to boats during rescue operations in Faenza, Italy after floods hit Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region on Wednesday
Elsewhere in the north, authorities in Venice are preparing to activate a mobile barrier in the lagoon the hopes of sparing the city from the rare May high-tide flooding.
The barrier system, known by its acronym Moses, and recalling the Biblical account of the Red Sea parting, will be lifted on tonight for the first time in May.
It is nearly 20 years since construction began on the project, which is still not officially completed.
Earlier this month, a day and a half of non-stop rain caused flooding in the populous Emilia-Romagna region, leaving at least two people dead as riverbeds left dry by drought overflowed.
The rainfall came as Italy had been bracing for a second year of drought, which has depleted its largest river, the Po. The river supports agriculture in the vast Po River Valley before emptying into the Adriatic Sea east of Bologna.
While north-east Italy was hardest hit by the downpours, flooding also caused damage in the south.
On the island of Sicily, rescuers responded to flooding, fallen trees and other problems in the countryside between Palermo and Trapani. By Tuesday morning, the weather there was improving, firefighters said.
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