“The government exists. It was a tragedy but it can be an opportunity to be reborn stronger”. After leaving the G7 in Japan early to realize how the floods have massacred Emilia-Romagna, the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni finally touches the devastated area between Ravenna Forlì and Faenza first hand and promises “immediate answers”. He rules out that Pnrr funds can be used even though he is aware that “many resources” will be needed to repair the “damages”, which are currently difficult to even estimate.
Meloni: ‘Damage estimate? Difficult, but many resources are needed’
The program remains confidential for many hours also to avoid “catwalks”, says the premier as she leaves the Ravenna Prefecture to journalists who have been chasing her since lunchtime, when after landing in Rimini she loses track, while social networks amateur videos of his inspection of the flooded towns. Countries where the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella will also travel soon, when the emergency is over, to bring solidarity and closeness to the affected populations.
The CDM is convened for Tuesday, which will discuss the damages and the aid to be distributed, and on Monday the premier announced that she will spend the whole day with the ministers to optimize the measures. Now that the worst seems to be over, even if people are still shoveling mud and trying to save what can be saved, we need to think about reconstruction. After all, the president of Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini was clear: “There are people who have lost everything at home and in their businesses, we will need 100% reimbursements as it was for the earthquake. Then we need the material reconstruction of what gave way – he continues – over 600 roads, 300 active landslides. The hill and the mountain will not be forgotten, entire woods have collapsed and then primary rules and expeditious procedures are needed “.
Green blouse, blue trousers and boots, the prime minister, accompanied by the deputy minister Galeazzo Bignami, first drove around the Ravenna area, then the Forlì area and, in order not to attract attention, she met Bonaccini at the Forlì motorway tollbooth, to then continue the her tour in Faenza and again in Ravenna, meeting mayors and ordinary people (“I’m moved”, she admits). Meanwhile, in front of the prefecture of Forlì, a small group of young ‘Fridays for Future’ were ready to challenge her, without knowing that she would never arrive. The money for the flood victims will be found, Meloni said, but it will not be that of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. “I believe that in this phase the use of other funds is necessary. In any case, many resources will have to be mobilized – he reiterated again – and here too the government is already working to understand which priority funds could be from which we can draw” .
The premier highlighted that the 10-20 million that will be allocated to the CDM “are needed to guarantee relief now”, but much more will be needed. “The European Solidarity Fund is one of those that can be used” for this. “We need to work – he added – on compensation and reconstruction but this requires a complete estimate and work must also be done on simplifying procedures, this is perhaps now one of the most strategic things: understanding where the responsibility should lie, how do we count the resources we have at our disposal at many institutional levels and try to concentrate them in order to immediately spend what we can spend”. The main need, as underlined by the mayor of Cesena Enzo Lattuca, who after speaking on the phone with Meloni said he takes his commitment seriously, is to act “quickly, otherwise this positive feeling that developed in the tragedy will will turn into anger”.
Bad weather in Emilia-Romagna, Meloni in Ghibullo
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17.30 – “Now our task, net of the incredible work of the Civil Protection, of the forces of order, of the armed forces is to guarantee immediate answers.”. This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni from Ravenna.
17.25 – “There are people who have lost everything at home and in their businesses, we will need 100% reimbursements as was the case for the earthquake”. This was stated by the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region Stefano Bonaccini, at the end of the meeting with Giorgia Meloni in the prefecture in Ravenna. “Then we need the material reconstruction of what has given way – he continues – over 600 roads, 300 active landslides. The hill and the mountain will not be forgotten, entire woods have collapsed and then primary rules and expeditious procedures are needed”.
15.29 – Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spent the afternoon visiting, with a very small delegation, the towns of the Forlì and Ravenna areas, particularly affected by the floods. After landing at Rimini airport, she went by car to see the damage caused by the flood.
15.04 – Tomorrow, after five days of suspension, teaching activities will resume in all schools in Cesena, with the exception of upper secondary ones. This was decided by the Administration of the Romagna city
14.43 – .“Nobody knows where Prime Minister Meloni is today and I think this is a very appreciable fact because we need everything right now, except catwalks with queues of hundreds of people”: to say it is the mayor of Ravenna, Michele De Pascale, at the end of the meeting in the Prefecture with the head of the national civil protection, Fabrizio Curcio, which was also attended by the president of the Romagna reclamation consortia, Stefano Francia.
14.37 – There are 622 roads closed, of which 225 are partially closed and 397 totally closed in Emilia-Romagna due to landslides and floods. There are 236 in Bologna, 201 in the province of Forlì-Cesena, 139 in the province of Ravenna and 46 in the Rimini area.
14.21 – With the progressive cleaning up of the flooded areas, the number of people evacuated decreases: they are (data updated at 12) they are 26,324. About ten thousand people who were displaced yesterday were able to return home. Most of the evacuees, 19,500, are in the Ravenna area, then 4,918 in the province of Forlì-Cesena and 1,906 in the Bologna area. Of these, 5,370 (of whom about 4,000 in the Ravenna area, 734 in the Bologna area, 632 in the Forlì-Cesena area and 4 in the Rimini area) are accommodated in hotels and in the structures set up by the Municipalities: schools, arenas and gyms; the others have found alternative accommodations (second homes, friends and relatives). 43 Municipalities remain affected by the floods and, in terms of hydrogeological instability, about 305 landslides are active concentrated in 54 Municipalities.
13.00 Four trucks with ninety quintals of material delivered to Forlì, to help people affected by the floods of these days, plus a special message of solidarity. It is the result of the day organized by Usmia Carabinieri and Siulp Modena: in the rain, many went to the food collection center in Modena, bringing basic necessities.
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12.59 “Work continues on the Emilia-Romagna canal, the Cer, both to reverse its course so as to make its waters flow towards the Po, and to use it as an accumulation tank”: thus told ANSA the municipal councilor for civil protection, Gianandrea Baroncini, explains the works that the municipal administration of Ravenna has been putting in place for days “in an attempt – he underlines – to lighten the reclamation channels present in the city”.
12.49 – The alert level in Emilia-Romagna does not decrease: the civil protection has, in fact, renewed the red alert for tomorrow as well on the areas affected by the bad weather of recent days. The red code in Bologna and Romagna it is connected to the serious hydrogeological and hydraulic problems already present in the area and originating from the events of recent days. However, light scattered precipitation is expected tomorrow. No significant increases in river levels are expected. The danger of landslides remains very high.
12.16 “I sincerely renew my closeness to the population of Emilia Romagna, affected by the floods in recent days”. Pope Francis said this at the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square, recalling that today the Laudato Si’ Week begins.
12.11 In Barge, the town in the province of Cuneo that saw the most rain yesterday, 189 mm, the bridge over the Ghiandone stream has been closed since yesterday, which had already reached the danger level yesterday morning. “There are microlandslides, especially on Mount Bracco – reports Maurizio Rasetto, municipal councilor for civil protection – but at the moment we don’t have major problems. The rivers have obviously swollen and some bealera have come out, but it seems that now the rain has stopped calm down”.
11.36 The inhabited center of Ribordone, a town of about seventy inhabitants in the valley of the same name in the province of Turin, is isolated due to the fall of some rocks on the road.
Cab Terra floods its land to save Ravenna from the water
10:57 “Finally the sun has come out. The situation is improving: we still have some areas, particularly in the Ravenna area, the lower ones, which are flooded. In Cesena, the city is really being cleaned up and in my opinion, tomorrow evening, it will be cleaned up, if not all, almost all”. This was stated by the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini, speaking directly from Cesena to the broadcast ‘L’ Indignato Speciale’ on Rtl 102.5.
10.39 The situation relating to the ongoing flood emergency was monitored throughout the night and currently appears substantially unchanged. This is what the Municipality of Ravenna makes known through the daily update of the institutional website. Adding that “the level of the channels is stable”.
10.26 After yesterday’s strong storm, the damage in the Aeolian Islands is counted, while the interventions to make safety and restore the road network that had been closed in various areas of the islands due to the invasion of brackish water, crushed stone and various debris have already started.
10.25 After reaching the danger level, 4 meters high, the Po flooded this morning in Villafranca Piemonte, on the border between the provinces of Cuneo and Turin. Floods also occurred in the village of Cardè.
9.50 Protection, water and food must be guaranteed for the more than 250,000 cattle, pigs, sheep and goats reared in the stables of flooded Romagna where there are also around 400 poultry farms, including chickens, laying hens and turkeys and almost 45,000 bee hives, many of which they are missing. This is what emerges from the monitoring of Coldiretti
9.35 It continued to rain throughout the night in many areas of Piedmont and this morning the Po river exceeded the danger level, in Carignano and Villafranca, in the Turin area. The most abundant rainfall in the Cuneo area: the Arpa weather station in Barge recorded over 300 millimeters of rain in three days.
9.15 There are about 180 people displaced by the floods who are currently hosted in the 4 hubs made available by the Municipality of Ravenna.
9.10 Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is flying to Emilia Romagna, where she is expected around lunchtime for an inspection in the areas affected by bad weather. The Italian state aircraft, which took off in the night from Hiroshima in advance of the closing of the G7 summit, made a stopover in Kazakhstan and is now headed for Italy.
9.08 There are two investigations into the helicopter that crashed yesterday morning in Belricetto di Lugo, in the Ravenna area, between a flooded field and a road covered in mud. One – as reported by the two local newspapers – was launched by ENAC, the national body for civil aviation. And the other was opened by the prosecutor Angela Scorza who ordered the seizure of the wreck. Two hypotheses of crime under consideration: culpable injuries and aviation disaster, in the first instance against unknown persons
9.06 The “Adriatica” state road 16 is temporarily closed to traffic, in both directions, between km 171 and km 173, in Cervia, in the province of Ravenna.
9.04 Almost 4,000 interventions were carried out by firefighters in Emilia Romagna. There are 1,121 men involved in rescue operations
8.41 At 8 am on the A14 Bologna-Taranto the stretch between Faenza and Forlì was reopened, making three lanes towards Ancona and two lanes towards Bologna available to traffic.
Bad weather in Emilia Romagna, road of Passo del Carnaio destroyed
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2023-05-21 22:11:00
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