Flood-ravaged Emilia-Romagna remains on red alert

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 20 - Emilia-Romagna was on red alert on Saturday and will remain so Sunday with rain retuning to the northeastern region after this week's devastating floods that claimed 14 lives.
    Vast areas are still under water and landslides are a massive problem, especially in areas in the Apennines.
    Emilia-Romagna Deputy Governor and Civil Protection Chief Irene Priolo said that around 100 municipalities in the region had suffered damage due to the floods, three time the number affected by the devastating earthquake that struck the region in 2012.
    "Seen from above, the territory looks like it has been bombed," Priolo told a news conference.
    "It's shocking".
    The number of people who have been evacuated from their homes because of the floods has risen to more than 36,600, the regional government said on Saturday.
    Most of them, 27,775, had to leave their homes in the province of Ravenna, where the situation is particularly bad, with drinking water and food in short supply in some areas. Then there were 4,830 in the province of Forlì-Cesena and 4,012 in the Bologna area.
    Of these people 4,963 people are being put up in hotels or in temporary dormitories set up by local councils in schools, sports halls and gyms.
    The rest have found alternative solutions, going to holiday homes or getting put up by families or friends This week's 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.
    "A connection between what is happening at the moment in Emilia-Romagna and the consequences of climate change exists," said Mauro Rossi, a researcher for the National Research Council's Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection (CNR-IRPI). (ANSA).