Rescue work continues in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna, where the worst torrential rains in 100 years leave at least 14 fatalitiesmore than 20,000 evacuees and millions in damages, while there is towns that remain isolated.

The firefighters continue to help the inhabitants of these towns and the neighbors who have been trapped in their homes and there have already been 2,175 interventions since the storms began.

Rescue operations that are complex due to the numerous breakdowns in the electrical and telephone networks, since many people are incommunicadoin addition to the fact that dozens of regional roads are impassable due to landslides.

On the night from Thursday to Friday, flooding continued in Ravenna, where the City Council ordered the house evacuation in streets where the water was rising dangerously. In addition, in several towns there are still houses without electricity or drinking waterwhile in the Apennines some localities are isolated due to landslidesparticularly in the Forlì area.

Fear of new storms

The regional environmental agency maintains the Red alertalthough the weather forecasts have improved in the last few hours, but it is feared that it will rain again during the weekendat a time when the rivers are still in a state of alert for flooding.

Thus, before the imminent arrival of a new storm, the municipality of Ravenna has ordered the evacuation from the towns of Piangipane and Santerno. The municipality of Conselice has also been partially evacuated, as confirmed by the Emergency services to the newspaper ‘La Repubblica’.

The Italian meteorological service anticipates for this weekend heavy showers in the north, in the center -particularly in the Apennines- and possible additional storms in the south, especially in Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia.

Meanwhile, the Minister of the Environment, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, has announced that the Government will approve next Tuesday the declaration of state of calamity for Emilia Romagna and for the northern part of Marche, while the president of Emilia Romagna, Stefano Bonaccini, has warned that “we are talking about billions of euros in damage“.