Death toll of Emilia Romagna floods climbs to eight

(ANSA) - BOLOGNA, MAY 17 - The death toll of the wave of torrential rain and flooding that has hit Emilia Romagna has climbed to eight, Governor Stefano Bonaccini said on Wednesday, adding that there are "some missing people" too.
    He expressed the region's condolences to the victims of the extreme weather and their families and compared the disaster to the 2012 earthquakes that claimed 27 lives and causes massive devastation there.
    "I have no hesitation in saying that we are facing another earthquake" Bonaccini told a press conference with Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and other officials.
    Bonaccini said he was working closely with the central government on addressing the emergency, adding that he had spoken to Premier Giorgia Meloni, who is in Japan for the G7 summit, as well as President Sergio Mattarella.
    He said many people had been evacuated from their homes, including 3,000 in Bologna, 5,000 in Faenza and 5,000 in the province of Ravenna, adding that the figures were destined to rise. The bodies of three of the victims were found in Forlì - an elderly man who was swept away when the Montone River burst its banks and a man and a woman found in a flooded home in the Cava district of the city.
    A 70-year-old man died in the town of Ronta di Cesena after the Savio River overflowed, while his wife's body was found some 20 kilometers away at Zadina beach near to Cesenatico.
    Another man was killed by a landslide at Montiano nel Cesenate.
    Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said that 50,000 people are without electricity and there is no service for 100,000 mobile telephone users and 10,000 fixed-line clients.
    Regional rail traffic is suspended in Emilia Romagna, while traffic on national and high-speed trains continues to operate, he said.
    The fresh wave of extreme weather comes after Emilia Romagna was hit by storms that claimed two lives at the start of the month.
    Scientists say that extreme weather events like heat waves, supercharged storms, flooding and droughts are becoming more frequent and more intense because of climate change caused by human greenhouse-gas emissions. (ANSA).