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FLOODS

‘We’re in a full emergency’: Two missing as floods hit northern Italy

Two people were reported missing on Thursday after large parts of Italy’s northeastern Emilia Romagna region were hit by floods which forced the evacuation of over 1,000 residents.

Published: 19 September 2024 08:59 CEST
Updated: 19 September 2024 13:19 CEST
File photo of a flooded road in the Emilia Romagna region in May 2023
File photo of a flooded road in the Emilia Romagna region in May 2023. Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP

Deputy Transport Minister Galeazzo Bignami told a press conference that two people were missing in the town of Bagnacavallo, in the Ravenna province, after they took refuge under a roof which then collapsed, according to Italian media reports

Authorities in Bagnacavallo had issued an evacuation overnight on Wednesday, reports said.

No further details about the missing people were immediately available. 

The prefect of Ravenna, a province located in Emilia Romagna’s southeastern corner, said some 800 residents had been evacuated from their homes after local rivers burst their banks overnight, according to Ansa.

Another 200 people were evacuated in the Bologna province, according to SkyTg24. 

Italy’s fire service said on social media platform X it had completed 500 separate operations overnight. 

Efforts to evacuate residents who had remained trapped in their homes were underway in Ravenna after river Senio burst its banks in multiple sections. 

Some 14 people were evacuated from a care home in Forlì due to flooding, the fire service said.

Several state roads in the Bologna area, including the Montanara, from Casalfiumanese to Moraduccio, and the Bordona, from Casalfiumanese to Castel del Rio, were blocked by landslides. 

State-owned rail operator Trenitalia said that services between Forlì and Faenza, Ravenna and Castelbolognese, Ravenna and Ferrara, and Ravenna and Faenza had been suspended until further notice due to “critical weather conditions”.

Schools in the worst-affected areas remained closed on Thursday. 

“We are in a full emergency,” Ravenna mayor Michele De Pascale told Radio 24, saying the situation was “very similar to what we had last May” according to AFP.

“The population is on high alert,” Emilia Romagna’s acting president Irene Priolo told Radio Rai 1.

Priolo on Wednesday had advised people to “avoid travelling,” also asking “workers who can work remotely” to “stay in their homes”. 

Four Emilia Romagna provinces – Bologna, Forlì-Cesena, Rimini and Ravenna – were under a high-level ‘red’ weather warning on Thursday. The alert was set to be remain in place until the end of Friday, September 20, according to Italy’s Civil Department.

A ‘red’ warning is the most severe type of alert under Italy’s weather alert system.

Rivers in the affected areas are likely to overflow and divert from their normal paths, potentially causing flooding even in areas far from waterways, according to Italy’s Civil Protection.

READ ALSO: What you should do when there’s a flood warning in Italy

Violent storms may also cause damage to buildings and infrastructure, including roads, bridges and railway lines.

Authorities in the Emilia Romagna region said they had activated a toll-free number (800 024662) for emergencies. 

The Emilia-Romagna region was hit by devastating floods in May 2023. A total of 17 people were killed and more than 10,000 evacuated from their homes after rivers across the region burst their banks.

Other parts of Italy were hit by severe floods earlier this week as Storm Boris battered central and southern regions.

A firefighter was found dead in the province of Foggia, in Italy’s southern Puglia region, after the vehicle he was driving was swept away by flood waters late on Tuesday, Ansa reported.

The man was part of a team of fire service officers who were assisting motorists on a state road between San Severo and Apricena after hours of torrential rain caused flooding in the area. 

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FLOODS

Which parts of Italy are most at risk of flash floods?

Several parts of Italy have been hit by severe flooding in recent years. But why are floods so frequent in the country and which areas are more exposed to them?

Published: 19 September 2024 16:51 CEST
Which parts of Italy are most at risk of flash floods?

In mid-September 2024 large parts of Italy’s northeastern Emilia Romagna region were once again hit by floods which forced the evacuation of over 1,000 residents, as well as the temporary suspension of school classes and rail services in the worst-affected areas. 

But this incident was only the latest in a long series of devastating flash floods that have hit Italy in recent years. 

The Emilia Romagna region was struck by two deadly flooding events in the space of two weeks in May 2023.

Around six months later, in early November 2023, eight people were killed and hundreds evacuated after torrential rain caused rivers in the central Tuscany region to burst their banks, leading to severe flooding.

Why are floods so frequent in Italy? 

According to the latest available data from environmental organisation Legambiente, Italy saw some 510 flooding events from January 2010 to September 2022, 88 of which happened in 2021.

Experts say Italy’s vulnerability to flooding events lies partly in its morphological features as there is often relatively little space available for flood waters to spread out across the territory due to it being limited by mountain ranges (or hills) on one side and the sea on the other.

This means that flood waters are likely to accumulate in relatively small areas, with water levels continuing to rise as a consequence.  

READ ALSO: What you should do when there’s a flood warning in Italy

But the country’s natural susceptibility to flooding events is often exacerbated by human activities, including high levels of urbanisation and land consumption, which reduces the ground’s ‘permeability’ – that is to say its capacity to absorb excess water.

Finally, extreme weather events, including prolonged bouts of torrential rain, have become more frequent and intense in Italy in recent years due to climate change. Italy recorded 378 such events in 2023, up by 22 percent against 2022.

Which parts of Italy are most at risk of flooding?

According to Italy’s Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra), 14 percent (around 42,000 square kilometres) of the country is at low risk of flooding, 10 percent is at medium risk, and 5.4 percent is at high risk.

The remaining areas are labelled ‘no risk’, meaning that flooding events are highly unlikely. 

But national figures don’t allow for an overview of where at-risk areas are located around the peninsula, which is why it’s worth analysing regional data. 

According to Ispra, Emilia Romagna, in the northeast of the country (see map below), is the Italian region with the highest percentage of at-risk land, with 47.3 percent (this includes high-, medium- and low-risk areas). 

Ispra experts say this is partly due to the presence of small watercourses that run along “narrow riverbeds” and through “morphologically depressed areas” (or lowlands).

Emilia Romagna is followed by Veneto (32.2 percent), Friuli Venezia Giulia (21.5), Tuscany (21.2) and Lombardy (20,3).

When it comes to high-risk areas alone however, the southern Calabria region ranks first as 17.1 percent of its territory is considered to be at alto rischio.

Calabria is followed by Emilia Romagna (11.6 percent), Veneto (10), Friuli Venezia Giulia (9.6) and Lombardy (7.9). 

A general view of a flooded street in Conselice, near Ravenna, in May 2023

A general view of a flooded street in Conselice, near Ravenna, in May 2023. Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP

Finally, when looking at provincial data, Ferrara (Emilia Romagna) and Rovigo (Veneto) are Italy’s most flood-prone provinces as at-risk areas (including high-, medium- and low-risk areas) cover 99.9 and 99.1 percent of their territories respectively. 

Ferrara and Rovigo are two of a total of seven provinces in Italy where the percentage of at-risk land exceeds 50 percent of the provincial territory. 

The others are Ravenna, Venezia, Mantua, Reggio Emilia and Bologna.

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