CESENA, Italy (Reuters) – The floods that killed nine people in Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region caused billions of euros worth of damage and hit agriculture in particular, he said. the regional governor on Thursday.
Heavy rain this week devastated the eastern part of the region, known as Romagna, with up to 300 landslides, 23 rivers overflowing, some 400 roads damaged or destroyed, and 42 municipalities flooded.
“We are facing a new earthquake,” the President of Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini told reporters, recalling the seismic events that hit the region in 2012, destroying thousands of homes.
Noting that since then “almost everything” has been rebuilt, Bonaccini said, “that experience showed us that it can be done, and we will rebuild everything (again), I’m sure of that.”
According to the agricultural association Coldiretti, more than 5,000 farms were left under water in the region, which includes the so-called “Fruit Valley”, as well as wheat and corn fields.
“We had already estimated almost a billion euros of damage (from those floods), so imagine how much the figure will rise” with the new disaster, said Bonaccini, while adding that it was too early to give precise figures.
The floods are the latest in a series of extreme weather events to hit Italy over the past year, as once exceptional disasters become a regular part of life.
The government has pledged an extra 20 million euros ($22 million) in emergency aid, on top of the 10 million euros allocated in response to the previous floods two weeks ago, which killed at least two people.
The manufacturer of luxury sports cars Ferrari, which is based in Emilia-Romagna, has announced a donation of one million euros.
At least 10,000 people were forced to leave their homes, and many of those who remained in flood-affected areas were left without electricity. One of the dead left her house and washed up in a beach some 20 kilometers away.
In the city of Cesena, the rain has stopped and the waters have largely receded, allowing locals to regain access to their mud-ravaged homes, including couple Maurizio Cola and Raffaella Zanni who escaped early on Wednesday.
“We had to throw everything away, nothing was saved. The water reached here. The bed grew with water,” Cola told Reuters, while Zanni shed tears, mourning the loss of one of the her most precious possessions: her wedding album. .
“All the memories,” said Cola.
“Finished”, added Zanni.
Sunday’s Formula One Grand Prix at Imola, which is close to many of the worst-hit areas, has been called to ease the pressure on emergency services, while Bruce’s concert Springsteen in Ferrara later Thursday was expected to go ahead as planned.
It was the second time in this month that Emilia-Romagna was hit by bad weather. Heavy rains followed months of drought that parched the land, reducing its ability to absorb water, meteorologists said.
($1 = 0.9084 euro)
(Additional reporting by Alvise Armellini and Francesca Piscioneri in Rome, Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Toby Chopra)
By Claudia Greco and Antonio Denti
