At least 13 people have died in devastating flooding in northern Italy as rescue workers continue trying to save people trapped in their homes in the country’s worst flooding conditions in a century.
An estimated 20,000 people have been left homeless in the natural disaster in the northern Emilia-Romagna region. More than 20 rivers overflowed, and there were more than 280 landslides as of Thursday night, engulfing 41 cities and towns, according to the Guardian.
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Unexpected rain reportedly caused the rivers to overflow, and several Italian towns and cities’ infrastructures were no match to keep the forceful water and mud at bay. Residents were inundated by six months’ worth of rain in just a day and a half, the New York Daily News reported.
“It was a very bad 48 hours,” said Roberta Lazzarini, 71, a resident of Ravenna, a city badly effected by the flooding. “Water and mud took over our whole village.”
“Our community is broken,” said Lazzarini’s daughter, Ines, per the BBC. “We felt completely cut out, isolated, some of us were truly terrified.”
Older and disabled populations are especially at risk from the flooding, and rescue workers have labored under heavy rain to help save the most vulnerable groups.
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In the wake of the catastrophic flooding, officials have warned that Italy needs a national plan to combat climate change-induced flooding, per the Associated Press.
Recovery efforts, especially for towns cut off from major roads, as well as cleanup and reconstruction plans, are likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
