Advertisement

storms For Members

IN VIDEOS: How floods devastated Italy's Emilia-Romagna region

The Local Italy
The Local Italy - [email protected]
IN VIDEOS: How floods devastated Italy's Emilia-Romagna region
The city of Cesena, Emilia Romagna, following floods on May 17th, 2023. Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP.

Italy's northeastern region of Emilia Romagna suffered severe flooding on Wednesday after hours of intense rainfall: footage captured by eyewitnesses shows the extent of the damage.

Advertisement

Floods caused by heavy rains have killed 11 people in Emilia Romagna and caused devastation across the region on Wednesday.

A picture taken by an AFP photographer in Cesena on Wednesday showed a flooded road with a submerged car. 

(Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

Also in Cesena, dramatic footage captured by a bystander shows people swimming through shoulder-high water to reach a woman with her young child and bring them to safety.

Bologna's Via Saffi, one of the northern city's main thoroughfares, became a torrent of fast-running water.

The closed-off stretch of the A14 motorway between Faenza and Forlì was completely inundated, with rescue helicopters seen in the background of footage published on the Facebook page of local weather site Emilia Romagna Meteo.

An AFP image shows rescue workers evacuating inhabitants of Forlì in the early hours of Wednesday.

(Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

 

Helicopter footage captured by a member of Italy's fire service shows flooding up to rooftop level in Via Roversano and Via dei Mulini in Cesena.

A resident of the San Benedetto district of Forlì, where a person was found drowned in their home on Wednesday morning, posted a video from his window showing widespread flooding.

Advertisement

"This is the situation in Forlì, in my house, at 6am," the man says.

"A disaster."

The Repubblica newspaper published a viedo showing firefighters rescuing a man trapped in a basement flat in Cesena, where the Savio river burst its banks.

It's estimated that 130mm of rain fell in 24 hours, and further downpours are anticipated on Wednesday. Italy's Civil Protection Department has issued high-level red risk alerts for most of the Emilia Romagna region.
 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also