Ravenna, 15 May 2024 – Roads, homes, businessescommercial activities and flooded fields, a couple of railway underpasses flooded with water and temporarily closed to traffic, clogged drains, an accident caused in all probability from bad weather and various other critical situations. They are the effects of violent storms this afternoon they hit part of the province of Ravenna, dumping up to 60mm of rain and even large hail on orchards, vineyards and cultivated fields. The hailstorms, rather intense and prolonged, they hit crops hard in the areas of Bagnacavallo, Villanova, Cotignola, in particular in the Budrio area, as well as Bagnara di Romagna.
Here there are submerged fields, but above all defoliated plants and fruits in the growth and ripening phase devastated by ice grains. Significant damage also occurred in the Piangipane area, with vegetable production damaged by water and hail. The hail, although less destructive, also affected areas of Castel Bolognese, in the Casalecchio area, portions of the municipal territory of Solarolo and areas bordering the Municipality of Faenza. “This is – comments Coldiretti Ravenna – an event whose extent will only be fully assessable in the next few days, but some rather extensive damage is unfortunately already clearly visible”. Coldiretti Ravenna invites farmers to report the damage suffered as soon as possible, so as to be able to put in motion all possible support and compensation procedures aimed at compensating for any economic and land losses suffered.
Among the areas most targeted by the event is: Lugo, where some of the areas most affected by the flood that brought half of Romagna to its knees just a year ago, are back under water again. In Viale Bertacchi the water made its way into some homes, reaching up to 15 centimetres. As well as in via Amendola, in via Arginello near the nomad camp and in viale Europa. As a precaution, the railway underpass in via Felisio and that in via Provinciale Cotignola (near the hospital) were closed. In Bagnacavallo, Piazza Nuova was particularly affected by the effects of the storm, literally submerged. Still in Bagnacavallo, via Bedeschi, via Fossa and other streets were also flooded.
Several residents strongly protested “the failure to clean the sewers and for the lack of communication and personnel responsible for emergency interventions”. As Pierluigi Randi, president of Ampro (Association of Meteorological Professionals), explained in the evening, “it was the effects of a multicellular storm system. Intense storms which however have nothing to do with the devastating events recorded last year in this period, when exceptional rainfall was concentrated in particular in the Apennine area. In Lugo they fell heavily in a couple of hours 61 millimeters of rain, i.e. the quantity that should fall in the entire month of May. Followed by Bagnacavallo nord with 57.4 mm, Bagnacavallo centro with 48 mm, Massa Lombarda 43.2 mm, Cotignola 40 mm, Barbiano 37.8 mm, Sant’Agata 35 mm, Masiera 34 mm, Bizzuno and Villa Prati 30.5 mm, Fusignano 29.2 mm”. There were gusts of wind up to 80 km per hour between Cotignola and Bagnacavallo. Even tomorrow (Thursday) a repeat of the phenomena cannot be ruled out.”
