Loreta Piccolo, a pediatrician based in Cesena who lives in Via Ex Tiro a Serato, had her house overwhelmed by the flood. This is the interview with Matteo Basso, a child and patient of the doctor, who did the interview as a task requested by the school. The pediatrician’s daughter, Anita, was also interviewed about those tragic moments.
How long have you lived in this neighborhood? How are you?
Loreta: “We have lived in this neighborhood for 12 years. We have always had a good time here, it is a quiet neighborhood, without much traffic but at the same time it is very close to the center, which you can reach on foot. Furthermore there is the path of the long embankment which is particularly beautiful for walking.”
When the flood warning arrived, did you imagine that a similar disaster would happen?
Loreta: “Absolutely not. Furthermore, there has never been a real flood warning, like in 2019 when they went through the street with a megaphone warning of a possible flood. There had been a weather warning for 10 days but nothing more. We were surprised by a real wave from the street while we were calm at home; I remember I was studying with my son upstairs and we had left the cars parked as always. My husband had been supervising the river for a few days but there was still a meter missing from the edge of the embankment, so much so that in fact the wave did not come from the river but from the road; I looked out and saw a river of water in the street.”
Were you worried right away or did you think it would all go away?
Loreta: “I was immediately worried; the water arrived in large quantities and with such force, a real fury and was accompanied by a particular noise.
We immediately perceived a danger to our lives and that it was a bigger situation than we could imagine. The water made a very loud noise, the pipes vibrated, the sanitary fixtures and manholes roared, a very loud roar from the street; furniture began to float and bang against each other, to the point where we thought the stability of the house itself might be compromised. At a certain moment the kitchen window was broken by the water and the noise was crazy.”
Anita shows us photos and videos of that moment and we are all speechless; Loreta shows us her house and shows us that the kitchen has not yet been completely renovated. She shows us the level that the water had reached in the house (1.97cm). In her kitchen there is a huge glass window and, before the water broke through it, Loreta came down to monitor the situation: she remembers that she seemed to see a gigantic aquarium.
“At that point we had to make an important decision: leave the house or move to the roof, where there were already other people. However, I was very afraid of the idea of climbing onto the roof because I was with my children and I feared they might slip. So we decided to leave the house and run away; we got out and escaped through the window. In hindsight, looking back on it, it was a very risky decision because when we went out the cars were already floating and we risked being hit by one of them.”
Anita: “The current was very strong so we clung to a gate by roped together, I was so scared. My father was barefoot and my brother only wore shorts and we were really, really cold.”
Loreta: “As soon as we managed to get out of the street, a friend of ours arrived with some blankets, we were soaking wet and the water was freezing. I was shaking…I was cold for days.”
Were you able to protect anything? Have you lost something important to you?
Loreta: “During the escape I instinctively saved the phone I use for work; I even took a call from a patient who lived nearby. In the following days a friend of ours hosted us and they lent us some clothes so I could go back to work. Before escaping we had about 10 minutes to go up and down: we took documents, phones and shoes.”
Anita: “We saved the iron, remember?” (They laugh thinking that they could easily leave the iron and wondering which of them had taken it and for what reason)
Loreta: “I was only sorry to lose one thing: I had a piece of furniture with an antique radio and a record player that belonged to my great-grandmother; it was a family memory that I cherished so much.”
Anita: “I was very attached to cooking, I was really fond of it. When I saw it taken away by the mechanical arm (at the end of the flood, when the destroyed furniture was piled up outside the houses. Ed.) I was disappointed, because for me the kitchen represents Home, the moments spent together eating and cooked.”
Has civil protection intervened in your area?
Loreta: “Oh yes, this street was the center of everything; the video of Romagna Mia was shot in this street, of the child saved, of the lawyer pulled out of the cellar… both the civil protection and the Red Cross helped us a lot, without forgetting the many volunteers.”
What do you think of their intervention? Could you have used more resources and personnel or did it seem to you that you did everything possible?
Loreta: “They were very good, available; they did everything they could.” Anita: “And even more!”
When you saw the water rising in the street and at home, did you take refuge or did you stay at home as much as possible to save as many things as you could?
Loreta: “We ran away because we didn’t feel safe at home.”
Anita: “It was the only time I didn’t feel safe in my home…and now I don’t feel as safe as I used to, especially when it rains. And in May it will be a year and my thoughts will certainly go back to last year.”
What was the first emotion you felt when you saw the outcome of the flood?
Anita: “I haven’t seen it; I was a guest at a classmate’s house, luckily I didn’t see anything for several days. But I immediately felt the worry of not being able to return home, of not finding normality again.”
Loreta: “We were in a state of confusion, we couldn’t identify the emotions well and perhaps we even had little time to feel them. Right from the start I thought “ok, we’re safe, let’s move on, now let’s think about rebuilding”. More than space for emotions, I gave myself the time to ask myself a question: what now? Where do we start from? Seeing others and the images on television made us feel better in a way; we thought that we were not alone and that by sharing the burden and working together we would find the strength to overcome everything.”
Was anyone with you when the water started coming into your house? Loreta: “There were four of us, my husband and my two children.”
How many people came to help her? Who were they? Did you know them?
Loreta: “On average there were 30 people there every day for 3 consecutive days, so I would say about a hundred in total. Many friends, both mine and my children’s, and many strangers; many also came from outside the city. I want to remember a retired firefighter who arrived from Rome, entered the house and took the shovel and started working. I saw him, I approached him and thanked him; he burst into tears and hugged me tightly, he told me that when he saw what had happened he couldn’t do anything but follow his impulse, because it was his duty to come. I also remember Fabio, a young boy from Puglia who lives in Cesena, who worked
in our house 12 hours a day, he never ate or rested and was a sort of “construction site foreman”; he even scolded us if we touched objects he had just cleaned, our house had become his house. He always repeated “I won’t leave you alone”. The players of Cesena Calcio, the professors of the Comandini and Pascal Institute also came. A group from Arezzo brought a tractor and a bulldozer with a truck. My husband is a Sampdoria fan and the Magna Romagna fan group gave us a new dishwasher. Then an article came out in the Corriere della Sera and from that moment I started receiving lots of phone calls from all over Italy: many journalists but also many people, who continuously sent me photos of furniture and asked what was needed, and who organized collections from all over. They invited us from all over Italy to host us; it was an impressive thing, which I never, ever expected. There have been many misfortunes before ours and I really wondered what made this one different, what led to this collective mobilization that was so powerful and beautiful.”
Has this tragedy changed your character and the way you approach life?
Loreta: “Yes, of course. It’s really true that in life it’s not so much what happens to you but how you react; when these things happen you have to find the strength to start again. The damage was certainly material, and that can certainly be recovered, but the emotional damage is attenuated when you have many people around who help you overcome your worries. The solidarity of the people and their warmth repaired the emotional damage 100%.”
Did you form a stronger and more special bond with your neighbors or with those who came to help you? Did you help anyone else? Loreta: “We have developed new friendships and new bonds; even with our neighbors we are much closer now. In particular with our neighbor, who had just finished renovating his house, with whom we now have a much closer relationship. The closeness of the people is what made the difference: their strength became our strength. If we had been alone things would have gone very differently, we wouldn’t have made it.”
Anita: “I also went to help other people in their homes and now I feel much more part of this community.”
Were you able to react in that difficult moment? If so, what gave you the strength to react? Loreta: “The help of the people who were here with us, which as I already said, was decisive and made the difference”.
Despite the tragic nature of the event, were you able to obtain any positive considerations?
Loreta: “People, especially young people, made me feel that there is still good in humanity. However, I believe that many negative things have emerged: the problems related to construction near the river, the maintenance of the embankment, prevention, the management of this situation. When we bought a house here we didn’t even think about these issues. But certainly the positive thought I carry with me is that people can make a difference.”
Anita: “I agree, but I believe that this solidarity should exist regardless of the floods; we should be kind and helpful to others without having to wait to experience tragedies or die. Solidarity and attention for others should be our normality even in good times.”
Matteo Basso
