Authorities have started assessing the damage caused by two days of unprecedented rainfall following months of severe drought.
“Never has so much water fallen in 36 hours,” Regional Governor Stefano Bonaccini told Radio 24.
Bonaccini, who is also President of the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD), warned of the risk of “landslides and micro-mudslides in an area first hit by drought and then by heavy rainfall fall of water”.
Two people are known to have died as a result of the flooding and 500 people had to be evacuated from their homes, with the area between the provinces of Ravenna and Bologna bearing the brunt of the extreme weather.
On Wednesday Bonaccini asked central government to declare a state of emergency in the region.
“We’re all going to have to get busy in order to speed up the ecological and climate transition,” he told Radio 24, calling for more prevention and more resources.
“We need to do everything possible to reinforce the territory, make the rivers cleaner, try to build stronger embankments, intervene on instability,” he said.
However, “if climate change leads to these upheavals, we have the issue of having to fight it by all together reducing the air pollution that is causing the planet to overheat”, he concluded.
The cabinet responded on Thursday, declaring a state of emergency in Emilia-Romagna.
Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said it was important to respond with urgency.
"The government is working with the utmost promptness, in agreement with the region, to deal with a serious situation of danger for the safety of people and the evacuation of numerous families due to the overflowing of watercourses, flooding, landslides, and damage to road infrastructure, public and private buildings, hydraulic defence works, and the network of essential services,” he said.
The state of emergency has a duration of 12 months and allocates 10 million for "the most urgent interventions, in agreement with the Region and as an exception to current legislation".
ANSA
