Ten people have been killed and another four have been reported missing after a catastrophic flood broke out in the central Italian region of Marche on Friday. Local authorities reportedly said they did not anticipate the torrential downpours. Around 15.75 inches (400 millimeters) of rain fell onto the city of Cantiano.
Some survivors had to be flown by helicopter to remote towns in the Apennine Mountains, and about 40 people were treated at hospitals for their injuries in the wake of the catastrophe, according to Italian officials.
Dozens of survivors were forced to seek refuge from the powerful floods by holding onto branches or climbing on top of roofs while awaiting rescue. The extreme weather event is one of several Italy has experienced this year. The country has also been hit by summer wildfires, melting Alpine glaciers and rising sea levels that have had an adverse effect on the boot-shaped peninsula, which is surrounded by four different seas.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi visited the region after the catastrophe and voiced his concern that climate change was turning flood risks into “emergencies,'' adding that an infrastructure investment would be needed to help prevent future floods and that “tackling climate change” is also necessary to prevent the natural catastrophes. Draghi announced 5 million euros in aid for the region following the flood.
Friday’s deadly flood stretched across the region of Marche from its inland hills to the Adriatic coast. It hit the town of Sassoferrato, whose mayor called the flood unpredictable.
“[There was] only a yellow alert from the civil protection for wind and rain,” said Maurizio Greci, the mayor of Sassoferrato. “Nothing could foretell such a disaster.”
Massimiliano Fazzini told Italian state TV that the event was an “extreme” event more than an “exceptional one,” as the amount of rain falling on the region over a four-hour period was the most it has seen in hundreds of years, equivalent to the average level of precipitation over a six-month period. The hillsides were also unnaturally hard and brittle following a drought-like summer of little to no rain, accelerating the flow of runoff.
The floods swept through residents’ garages and basements, burst through doors, crushed cars and destroyed farm fields, and in one instance, a car was pushed onto a second-story balcony by the incredible rain.
“It wasn’t a water bomb, it was a tsunami,” said Riccardo Pasqualini, the mayor of Barbara, who said the flood left his town’s 1,300 residents without drinking water and that a mother and her daughter went missing while trying to survive the flood.
“You could see cars in the middle of the road that drifted away in the flood, debris everywhere, screams. It was chaos,” said Mirco Santarelli, a Cantiano resident, to The Associated Press.