After Earthquakes and Drought, Floods Devastate Northern Italy (Published 2023)
- ️Fri May 19 2023
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After Earthquakes and Drought, Floods Devastate Northern Italy
At least 14 people died and thousands were left homeless after some areas received half their annual rainfall in 36 hours in a region that had only recently finished rebuilding after a 2012 earthquake.
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May 19, 2023
Eleven years ago this month, back-to-back earthquakes struck the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, which this week was devastated by another disaster: Widespread flooding that has caused at least 14 deaths and left thousands more homeless.
On Friday, rescue workers continued to clear streets of mud, while towns in the Ravenna area remained submerged. Hundreds of roads were blocked by landslides making travel in the region difficult — with some towns cut off completely — and power was still out in some places.
Officials said the full extent of the damage was still not clear in the region, which had recently been plagued by drought and where few have forgotten the devastating 2012 earthquake.
“We couldn’t have imagined that we would commemorate the 11th anniversary of the earthquake — moreover with the satisfaction of having rebuilt practically everything or almost everything — with a new earthquake to deal with, because that’s what it is,” Stefano Bonaccini, the president of the Emilia-Romagna region, said in reference to the flooding at a news conference on Friday evening.
But he added the 2012 earthquake had taught an important lesson: “While dealing with the emergency, it is important to plan ahead and think of reconstruction,” he said, adding: “We must keep marching on and go back to producing and creating jobs, to give people a chance.”
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