Standing outside her home under moody skies in Ronta, a hamlet in the Forlì-Cesena area of Emilia-Romagna, Ivana Casadei considers herself one of the lucky ones. “The water only came as far as our garden,” said the 61-year-old. “But my neighbours’ home was destroyed, so they are now staying with us – there are eight of us living together, and five dogs.”
Emilia-Romagna remained on red alert on Sunday after catastrophic flooding that claimed 14 lives and left more than 36,000 people homeless. The emergency, which wreaked havoc across 100 cities and towns – many still under water – prompted the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, to return early from the G7 summit in Japan. A helicopter that had been attempting to restore electricity to homes crashed close to the badly affected town of Lugo on Saturday, injuring one of the four people onboard. “Frankly, I cannot remain so far from Italy in such a complex moment,” said Meloni, who visited some of the flooded areas on Sunday afternoon and pledged support to help the recovery.
Casadei’s home was among the cluster that rescuers were unable to reach until Saturday, first because of strong winds that prevented dinghies from arriving and then because of a landslide that snapped a nearby road in two.
One of her neighbours who died was Marinella Maraldi, whose body was swept 12 miles (19km) down the Savio River before being found in Cesenatico, a beach along the Adriatic coast. Maraldi’s husband, Sauro Manuzzi, also died, reportedly as they tried to save their farm animals, leaving behind their only daughter. “Marinella and I gave birth around the same time,” said Casadei. “They were a wonderful couple. None of us have experienced such disastrous flooding like this before – there are some people here who are close to age 100 who say they have never seen anything of the kind.”
Most of those left homeless have been put up by family or friends, while others are staying in hotels or temporary shelters.
Marina and her husband, whose home is uninhabitable, are among those staying with Casadei. “It hasn’t quite hit us yet,” said Marina, whose only salvaged item of clothing was her wedding dress. “We are in a daze … at the moment we just feel fortunate to be here, and are boosted by the solidarity. But then afterwards, the depression will probably come.”
Rescuers, who have been joined by thousands of volunteers, many of them young people who travelled from across Italy, are working relentlessly to clean mud and debris from the streets, or bring food and clothing to people living in shelters and isolated areas.
Mountains of furniture lined a street in Ronta as volunteers formed a human chain to lift buckets of flood water from an apartment building.
Lorenzo Camagni, 25, said he had not slept in three nights. “Over 2.5 metres [8ft] of water flooded our home,” he added. “I tried to pump the water away for nine hours straight before the rescuers came. My parents are devastated … but then we also feel lucky as so many are worse off than us.”
Six months’ worth of rain fell within 36 hours across Emilia-Romagna, one of Italy’s most important agricultural regions. Just two weeks ago, the area was hit by intense storms that killed two people. The floods were preceded by a drought that had dried out the land, reducing its capacity to absorb water. More than 305 landslides were caused by the latest floods, which in turn either damaged or closed off 500 roads.
Weather-related disasters have been on the rise in Italy, a country deemed particularly vulnerable to the climate crisis.
Enzo Lattuca, the mayor of Cesena, said people in the area were given a warning 24 hours before the storms. But he had trouble convincing some people to leave their homes, particularly those living in hillside hamlets.
“There was still sunshine at that point and many people didn’t think it would happen,” he said. “One woman, who didn’t want to leave her home, told me she only believed it was happening when the water was at her feet.”
Showing a photo of a severely damaged road on his mobile phone, Lattuca said: “I don’t even know if it will be possible to repair it.”
Paride Antolini, the president of the geologists order for the Emilia-Romagna region, said the “landslide bombing” was “distorting the cartography of the area”. “Many roads have completely disappeared,” he told the Ansa news agency. “In my 63 years I have never seen anything like it, it’s too much even for a geologist.”
Areas along the Emilia-Romagna coastline were also affected by the floods, with debris washing up on beaches.
Beach club owners have rushed to clean up their resorts in the hope of salvaging the holiday season, as hotels reported many cancellations over the weekend and during the last week of May.
“Tourism is obviously fundamental; many of us survive off the summer season,” said Simone Battistoni, president of the union of beach club owners in the Cesenatico area. “But we are ready to welcome people. Until then, 30 of us are working in shifts to bring essential supplies to the people who have been left homeless.”
In Riccione, a popular town that was partly affected by the floods, beach club owner Raoul Conti said: “We all worked to clean up the beach in a couple of days, but we feel fortunate, and so our thoughts are with our neighbours just a few kilometres away. Obviously the start of the season has been affected but I don’t think it will influence the rest of the season – people from Emilia-Romagna are stubborn, and we will double down to ensure it’s a good one.”
