[News] Authorities evacuate more villages in Italy and count the losses of deadly floods

[Guest High King Eslam]

Authorities in the Italian region of Ravenna issued immediate evacuation orders Thursday for three villages threatened with flooding, following heavy rains that claimed nine lives across northeastern Italy.

Buses were sent to help evacuate people from Vilanova di Ravenna, Filetto and Roncalcici after the Limoni river burst its banks.

Nearly two dozen streams and rivers in the southeastern parts of the Emilia-Romagna region have burst their banks after heavy rains earlier this week flooded entire neighborhoods and farmland.

More than 10,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and hundreds of landslides have been reported, according to district officials.

The rain stopped in the middle of the afternoon Wednesday, and forecasters said they don't expect much rain Thursday.

"But with six months' worth of rain falling in 36 hours as record rains fell two weeks ago, no region can hold out," Emilia-Romagna Governor Stefano Bonaccini told LA-7 channel late Wednesday.

"We counted an estimated two billion dollars in damage... the earth no longer absorbs anything," Bonaccini added.

Two people died in the same area earlier this month after 48 hours of almost continuous rain.

The Italian Armed Forces and the Coast Guard joined the emergency efforts, deploying helicopters to rescue people from their homes and rubber boats to reach homes besieged by water from all directions.

- thick sludge -

While water levels receded in some areas, residents were busy cleaning houses and streets covered with thick mud and scattered rubble.

"I've lived here since 1979, I've seen floods, but I've never seen anything like this," Cesena resident Eduardo Amadori told AFP on Wednesday.

Thousands of farms have been damaged in fertile agricultural areas, but Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said the waters had to recede for the government to be able to count the losses.

The organizers of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the sixth stage of the Formula One World Championship, which was scheduled for this weekend at the famous Imola circuit, announced on Wednesday that the race “will not take place” due to the floods.

The heavy rains came in the wake of a drought that affected large areas in northern Italy last winter, in addition to a record scarcity of rain last summer that affected agricultural crops.

"We have to get used to this in the future because unfortunately in recent years such heavy rains often fall," Air Force meteorologist Paolo Capizzi told AFP.

He added that global warming could not be directly blamed, but that "the ever-increasing frequency of this phenomenon could clearly be a consequence of ongoing climate change."

Source: France 24

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