Rains and bad weather, red alert is still in Emilia Romagna. Stop trains in some areas

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Emilia Romagna still under pouring water due to heavy rains: after a day and a night of practically uninterrupted rainfall, which required over 400 interventions by the Fire Brigade forced to ask for reinforcements from other Regions, the special observers are the rivers in flood , particularly in the provinces of Ravenna and Bologna. After a period of very serious drought, on 2 May the regional civil protection ordered thered alert due to hydrogeological criticality in the Bolognese plain: the alert will be valid until midnight today and will also affect some areas of the Ferrara and Ravenna areas. In particular, the tributaries of the Rhine were monitored: in fact, there have been increases in the hydrometric levels of the watercourses which could generate widespread landslides and runoff along the slopes.

Also due to bad weather, railway traffic was suspended in some areas of the region: between Faenza and Forlì (Bologna-Rimini line), Russi and Lugo (Bologna-Ravenna line), Russi and Granarolo (Faenza-Ravenna line) and between Lavezzola and Mezzano (Ferrara-Ravenna line). The suspension, the Fs explain, was made necessary by the raising of the emergency level of the Montone, Lamone, Senio and Santerno rivers due to the heavy and prolonged rains. Rfi technicians on site in contact with the Prefecture and Civil Protection. Traveling trains were stopped at stations. Rescheduling in progress.

Alarm for rivers and streams: flooding in progress

In the last few hours, the flooded area due to the breaking of the Sillaro embankment in Conselice (Ravenna) has expanded and during the night in Bagnacavallo the flooding of the Lamone in the Boncellino area was reported. Schools closed in some municipalities as a precaution, such as Faenza, Castel Bolognese, Selva and San Martino di Molinella, an area where the Quaderna overflowed.

Families have already been evacuated since the evening of Tuesday 2 May and other situations are being evaluated: the mayors advise in the areas most at risk not to move by car and to move to the upper floors of the houses. In the Ravenna area, the two most critical situations are those of Lamone and Montone in the hamlets of San Pancrazio and Ragone, San Marco, Santerno, Ammonite, Mezzano, Glorie and Torri. Bridges also closed in the Modena area, while the Futa state road, in the Apennines, was closed in Loiano due to a landslide. Several provincial roads in the Bologna area also closed. To deal with the bad weather emergency, Anas has instead closed state road 9 ‘Via Emilia’ in the section from km 69.425 to km 69.625 in Castel Bolognese, in the province of Ravenna, due to the overflow of the river Senio. Due to a landslide which caused the main pipe to break, the gas supply was interrupted throughout Predappio Alta.

Red and yellow alerts also in other Regions

But Emilia Romagna is not the only region under water, with storms that raged from north to south. Tuscany the yellow code warning for rain has been extended until 1 pm today, Wednesday 3 May. In addition to the rains, strong gusts of wind are expected, in particular they will be on the northern plains at the mouth of the Apennine valleys. During the day the wave of bad weather will also continue on the Sicily. The regional civil protection has released a weather-hydrogeological and hydraulic risk bulletin, valid until midnight, with an orange alert in the Messina area and in the province of Catania and yellow in the north of the island. On Palermo, however, a yellow alert is expected. Possible critical issues such as landslides due to adverse weather conditions are expected.