Rivers swollen by days of downpours flooded some towns in northern Italy on Tuesday, forcing some residents to rooftops, while in Venice, authorities were preparing to activate a mobile barrier in the lagoon in hopes of sparing the city from high-tide flooding, which would be rare in May.
After the Savio River overflowed its banks in the town of Cesena, in the Emilia-Romagna region, some residents of heavily flooded streets took to rooftops to await rescue by helicopters, Italian firefighters said.
In the tourist town of Ravenna in northeast Italy, authorities urged residents to move to upper stories of buildings to ride out the storm. In Riccione, a beach town on the Adriatic Sea, the mayor warned people to stay home as some took to rubber dinghies to navigate streets.
FLOODING IN ITALY LEAVES AT LEAST 2 DEAD
This aerial photo provided by the Italian Firefighters shows flooded fields in the area of Senigallia, Italy, on May 16, 2023. Unusually heavy rains have caused major flooding in the region. (Vigili del Fuoco via AP)
In Modena, a small city famed for gastronomical products, authorities said they would close local bridges to traffic on Tuesday evening as a precaution against rising river levels.
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Elsewhere, in the town of Senigallia, the Misa River’s waters were receding, local officials said.
Earlier this month, a day and a half of nonstop rain caused flooding in Italy’s populous Emilia-Romagna region, leaving at least two people dead as riverbeds left dry by drought overflowed their banks.
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The intense rainfalls came as Italy had been bracing for a second year of drought, which has depleted its largest river, the Po. The river supports agriculture in the vast Po River Valley before emptying into the Adriatic Sea east of Bologna.