Bad weather, two missing in Bagnacavallo. Over a thousand evacuees in Emilia-Romagna

Residents who could not get to safety climbed onto roofs and were rescued from above by fire brigade helicopters. Others were rescued by rubber dinghies. Some interventions were more complex, such as the one for three elderly people who were stuck on the first floor of a building and could no longer go down or up. The mayor of Bagnacavallo Matteo Giacomoni went to follow the evacuation of the area. "It was not an isolated situation, there were about 200 other people regularly evacuated," said the head of the Civil Protection department, Fabio Ciciliano, speaking at a press point in Bologna. Ciciliano pointed out that 'the mayors did what had to be done, they made the evacuation orders, in some cases they went around personally to ask for the evacuation of inhabited houses. This is something that should be emphasised, I thank the mayors because it is not taken for granted'. Immediately after the breaking of the Traversara embankment, the mayor of Ravenna, Michele de Pascale, had also ordered the total evacuation of the area.

The political clash started immediately, as soon as the rivers swelled, as soon as the banks broke, as soon as the roads flooded again: the centre-right accused the Emilia-Romagna Region of not having spent the money made available by the government, the centre-left accused the majority of political profiteering, the government of lack of attention to the flooded territories and recalled Bonaccini's failure to appoint a commissioner, who was taken over by General Figliuolo. And so, while relief efforts were underway, the majority and opposition exchanged broadsides and mutual accusations all day long.

Returning to the emergency, in Emilia-Romagna there has been a maximum accumulation of water falling in the last 48 hours that has exceeded, in some cases, 350 millimetres, with peaks in the area between Ravenna and Brisighella. Four basins were affected, in the areas between Bologna, Ravenna and Forlì-Cesena, with overflowing. The Region made this known in a note. More than a thousand people have been evacuated, 800 of them in the Ravenna area alone, due to the heavy wave of bad weather caused by the effects of Cyclone Boris, which arrived in Italy and hit Romagna and the Bologna area with particular violence. In May 2023, the millimetres of water that fell were 400-450 millimetres, but in two floods, while now, in a single event, 350 millimetres have fallen.

The red alert has been confirmed for tomorrow, Friday 20 September, in Romagna and in the Bologna area, for hydraulic and hydrogeological criticality due to the serious problems already present in the area, while in the Modena area the alert is orange. The Emilia-Romagna Region has pointed out that light rainfall is expected in the eastern Apennines. In view of the high accumulated rainfall and the rainfall expected in the central-eastern mountain areas, the hydrometric levels will remain high in the mountain sections of the watercourses and the hydrogeological criticality conditions will be widespread. Floods are expected to slowly subside in the valley sections of watercourses in the central-eastern sector. The Agency for territorial safety and civil protection, in close collaboration with Arpae Emilia-Romagna, will follow the evolution of the situation. All territorial protection actions have already been set up and the Agency's operations rooms have been alerted.

Over 500 rescue operations have been carried out in the last 24 hours. Initial checks have revealed no victims or missing persons. Throughout the Emilia-Romagna region, there are now over a thousand evacuees. In addition to the 800 people evacuated in the Ravenna area, another 165 have been displaced in the Bologna area and for all of them the night has passed in the reception centres made available by the municipalities and prefectures.

The most complex situations concern the Senio in the Cotignola area, the Lamone in Bagnacavallo and the Idice in the Bologna area. There are many critical situations in the Apennines, starting with Modigliana, where the first overflow occurred last night. At the moment, the main focus is on the flooding of the rivers, of which we are awaiting the passage of the ridge in many areas that were already flooded in May 2023.

The municipal administration of Bologna has announced that there were some critical situations in the San Ruffillo and Birra areas 'where about sixty people have been evacuated as a precautionary measure', most of them going upstairs or with autonomous accommodation from friends or relatives, while two families - six people in total - have been placed in hotels by the municipality.

In the hilly area of the city, there are some criticalities due in particular to vegetation weighed down by the rains and bent on the roads, while in the rest of the capital 'the situation is normal'.

Critical situation also in the Marche region. Copious rainfall over the entire region, the Aspio torrent flooding some areas in the southern area of Ancona, rivers of water on the roads, widespread landslides and inconveniences for the road system, some families temporarily isolated and others evacuated even with amphibious means by rescuers. These are a few snapshots of the bad weather emergency that has been lashing the Marche region for 48 hours now, affecting all the provinces and the provincial capital in particular. The orange alert issued for today by the Civil Protection will return to yellow tomorrow, but attention remains high, especially in Ancona, where schools will remain closed for another 24 hours. Monitoring by municipalities and the Region remains constant and the operational centres open. The civil protection system, fire brigade, mountain rescue, police and municipal offices are under pressure, also to provide assistance to motorists in difficulty. Problems for public transport and 118 emergency services. The fire brigade alone carried out more than 600 interventions, and divers went into action to rescue eight people in the area between Numana and Castelfidardo due to heavy flooding. Amphibious vehicles and rubber dinghies are in action at Aspio and Castelferretti di Falconara, where the centre was invaded by water after the San Sebastiano ditch overflowed: some people have been evacuated. Meanwhile, schools, public parks and cemeteries are still closed tomorrow in Ancona, while in Senigallia, which was hit by floods in 2014 and 2022 and this time touched by bad weather, they will reopen after today's stoppage.

Railway traffic between Faenza and Ravenna, which had been suspended since midnight following the wave of bad weather, resumed at 5pm. The Bologna - Prato line between Grizzana and Monzuno and the Bologna - Rimini line between Faenza and Forlì already fully reopened at 1.30 p.m. Train circulation remains suspended on the Ferrara - Ravenna line, between the stations of Portomaggiore and Ravenna, with service expected to resume tomorrow. Longer reactivation times are estimated on the Castel Bolognese - Ravenna line due to damage to the infrastructure on the Lugo - Russi section. Some shuttle bus connections between Castel Bolognese and Russi have been activated, with stops at intermediate stations. Significant damage to the infrastructure was also found between Faenza and Marradi on the Faentina line; inspections are in progress to estimate the time required for reactivation.

The main concern in Romagna at the moment is the passage of flood peaks in some lowland areas. As the acting president of the Emilia-Romagna Region Irene Priolo told Tg1, "the situation is critical for some overflows in Cotignola on the Senio river, in Bagnacavallo on the Lamone river and on the Idice basin in the Bologna area, there are many critical situations in the Apennines, while in Faenza they are being resolved".

The emergency brings with it the political controversy over the use of the resources allocated after the 2023 flood. "In this decade Emilia-Romagna has received 594,567,679 euro from the government in Rome for the fight against hydrogeological instability. If the region could make the effort to let us know how much of this resource has been spent (I hope all or almost all of it) and which are the most vulnerable territories, on which we need to intervene, we from Rome could plan further interventions under the ordinary regime'. This was said by the Minister for Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci, at a press conference at Palazzo Chigi. The minister explained that he did not want to be 'polemical' towards the regional administration because 'we do not know how much of this resource has already been used and translated into works. When we have the precise figure,' he concluded, 'we will be in a position to make an objective assessment.

"Minister Musumeci's statements denounce a great lack of sense of institutions". This was said by the mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, who during a press point on the bad weather in the metropolitan city responded at a distance to the Minister of Civil Protection who had accused Emilia-Romagna of having done too little against hydrogeological instability in recent years. "The nature of wolves never passes, they only know how to bite," Lepore added bitterly. 'We are here with our feet in the mud dealing with the floods,' Lepore said, 'and the bad weather in these hours and the Minister of Civil Protection, who has the institutional task of helping the territories, is campaigning. He has no respect for the institutions, nor for the citizens, nor for the work done in recent years together with the government and Commissioner Figliulo. I do not believe this is the way to work together for the good of the community. When there is still a flood in progress, a Minister of Civil Protection cannot just dump the barrel, he should have been here since yesterday,' Lepore added. Instead, we haven't seen anyone since yesterday' and 'for about a year and three months we haven't seen Minister Musumeci, whom it would have been very important to have been able to meet in the past months'.

'Full sympathy to the communities and territories again affected by the flooding events of the past few hours. While the administrators of Emilia-Romagna spent the night managing the emergency, organising relief and supporting the population, the right-wing government immediately set about doing political looting for electoral purposes'. This was stated by PD secretary Elly Schlein. "Giorgia Meloni had made, more than a year ago, a useless parade with her boots in the mud promising 100 per cent relief to families and businesses that never arrived. They did not put adequate resources in place'. The government 'before being ridiculous is indecent'.

Unioncamere Emilia-Romagna, in agreement with the region, is providing aid for companies once again hit by bad weather: 1.1 million euro for companies in Bologna, Modena and Reggio Emilia that have suffered damage from weather events since 1 May 2023 or are investing to make themselves safe from and prevent extreme weather events.