ROME: Italian authorities evacuated some 1,000 people from their homes as the tail end of Storm Boris pummeled a northeastern region that was devastated by deadly flooding last year, regional authorities said on Thursday. The strong winds and rains which have swept across central and eastern Europe, killing 24 people, lashed the Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions on Wednesday, leaving some towns under water.

Deputy Transport Minister Galeazzo Bignami told a press conference that two people were missing after they took refuge on a roof which then collapsed. Schools closed and trains were cancelled Thursday as the rains lashed the same area hit by two floods in May 2023, which killed 17 people and caused billions of euros in damage. Locals in Faenza told Local Team journalists they blamed authorities for fresh damage to their homes.

“There’s one and a half meters of water in my house, again, after I’d just finished refurbishing it,” one unnamed resident was quoted as saying. Over 1,000 people have been evacuated, regional Emilia-Romagna authorities told AFP Thursday. “We are in a full emergency,” Ravenna mayor Michele De Pascale told Radio 24, saying the situation was “very similar to what we had last May (2023)”.

“The population is on high alert,” said Emilia-Romagna’s acting president, Irene Priolo, told Radio Rai 1, adding that last year 45,000 people were evacuated but that the damage this time was not expected to be as extensive. Priolo defended her administration, saying “so many construction works have been carried out” since the flooding last year.

Storm Boris has brought widespread flooding and torrential rain, with victims in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Experts say climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activities is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as torrential rains and floods. — AFP