(Rome) Des habitants d’Émilie-Romagne ont exprimé jeudi leur colère après le passage de la tempête Boris qui a fait deux disparus, accusant les autorités de ne pas avoir pris de mesures préventives malgré les inondations dévastatrices ayant déjà frappé l’an dernier cette région du nord-est de l’Italie.
Publié à 9h42
Les pluies torrentielles accompagnées de vents violents ayant frappé le centre et l’est de l’Europe, tuant 24 personnes, ont touché à partir de mercredi l’Émilie-Romagne et les Marches, deux régions donnant sur l’Adriatique, entraînant l’évacuation d’un millier de personnes, tandis que deux personnes sont portées disparues.
« Le chef de la Protection civile, M. Fabio Ciciliano, m’a fait savoir que deux personnes sont portées disparues […] after the roof on which they had taken refuge collapsed,” announced Deputy Minister of Transport Galeazzo Bignami during a press conference.
Schools were closed and trains cancelled as the rains hit areas already ravaged by floods in May 2023 that killed 17 people and caused billions of euros in damage.
Residents of the town of Faenza have lashed out at the authorities, blaming them for the new damage to their barely restored homes. “There’s a metre and a half of water in my house again, even though I’ve just finished restoring it,” one resident told Italian media outlet Local Team on condition of anonymity.
The Emilia-Romagna region told AFP that around 1,000 people had been evacuated.
“We are in an emergency situation,” Ravenna Mayor Michele De Pascale told Radio 24, saying the situation is “very similar to the one we experienced in May” 2023.
“The population is on alert,” said the president of the Emilia-Romagna region, Irene Priolo, while recalling that “last year we evacuated” 45,000 people and that the damage should not be as severe this time.
She also defended her administration against criticism, deploring the “controversies” while “so much reconstruction work has been completed.” Irene Priolo also called on the central government to release funds to create new reservoirs to dam the rivers in the event of flooding.
According to a statement from the region, the rain that fell in the last 48 hours “in some cases exceeded 350 mm.”
More than 500 volunteers are working to help the firefighters and hundreds more are still expected from various regions of Italy, according to the same source.
Human-induced climate change is warming the planet at an alarming rate, leading to an increase in extreme events, according to the global scientific community.
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