Emilia-Romagna floods in 2023 - Italy

Water, lots of water. But also mud, stones and earth which, from the Apennine mountains, slide into the rivers and increase their flow, which has already quickly reached its limit.
The same amount of rain that normally falls in seven months falls in two weeks, causing twenty-three rivers to overflow their banks across the region: in some areas, nearly half of the average annual rainfall falls in just 36 hours. The first floods are recorded between 2 and 3 May 2023 in and around the cities of Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Faenza, Ravenna and Rimini, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, killing two people. Then the most serious floods from 16 to 17 May 2023, which increased the number of victims to 15 and displaced almost 40,000 people.

That night the flood overwhelmed everything: homes, workplaces, churches and public buildings. The force of the water destroys everything it encounters and where the rivers collide, in the lower parts of the cities, it even reaches the second floors of the buildings. In towns and cities where the water retreats quickly, a mess of mud remains that must be shoveled out as soon as possible, that is, before it solidifies and becomes as hard as stone. Thousands of volunteers, mostly young people, reach Romagna from all over Italy and offer to help in the most affected areas: they are nicknamed the "mud angels", taking up the nickname of the volunteers who contributed to tackling the emergency following the flood in Florence on 4 November 1966 and which supported the first reconstruction.

In other areas the flood does not recede, such as in Conselice, which becomes the symbol of the flooding of Romagna and, in its lowest part, the water still reaches a meter deep a week after the last rainfall. Due to its height above sea level of only 6 metres, the urgency is to try to make the water flow away, to prevent it from discharging sewage and waste water, but also agricultural waste, dead animal carcasses and hydrocarbons and heavy metals , leaked from flooded companies, can seriously pollute the area and trigger infections and epidemics.


In the other affected areas, meanwhile, the Fire Brigade, Civil Protection and the Italian Army together with thousands of volunteers are trying to clear the streets of mud, free homes from damaged furniture, bring aid to the population trapped on the upper floors of the houses or displaced and relocated in reception camps set up in schools, convents and public buildings.

The first funerals are celebrated and the community rallies around the families of the victims, as does the Italian Government which, as a symbol of closeness, proclaims national mourning, with flags at half-mast in all public buildings and grants public funerals. Minister Anna Maria Bernini (University and Research) participates in the State Funeral as a representative of the government, together with high officials, institutions and carabinieri in full uniform. 


On 25 May 2023, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, after a press conference with President Meloni, reached the territories hit hard by the flood and she was welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd who cheered her.

The toll of the tragedy is disastrous: over 4.5 billion cubic meters of water fell on a portion of territory of 16 thousand square kilometres, 44 municipalities flooded and 48 affected by landslides, 250 instabilities, 23 rivers and waterways flooded while another 13 saw the maximum alarm level exceeded. And still thousands of open landslides, 376 of the main ones occurred between hills and mountains, over 30 isolated hamlets, 105 schools attached or unreachable due to landslides and landslides and damages estimated at around 10 billion euros. 
Finally, the most dramatic toll: 15 dead and over 36 thousand displaced people.