More than 1,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes in Northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region after a series of torrential downpours triggered widespread floods, landslides, and infrastructure damage, prompting renewed warnings from the European Union about the mounting cost of climate change.
Emergency services were deployed across the central and northern regions of the country as swollen rivers breached their banks and flash floods swept through towns and rural communities, submerging streets, washing away cars, and forcing families to flee with little more than the clothes on their backs.
In Bologna, one of the hardest-hit cities, firefighters used inflatable dinghies to rescue elderly residents trapped in upper floors of homes surrounded by chest-high waters. Schools and train services across the region have been suspended, while the main north-south rail line linking Milan to Rome experienced delays due to track damage and debris.
The regional governor of Emilia-Romagna, Stefano Bonaccini, described the situation as “an emergency without precedent,” noting that in some areas rainfall totals over the past 48 hours exceeded those normally recorded in a six-month period.
“It’s not just the intensity, it’s the speed and frequency of these events that is new,” he said at a press conference in Bologna. “We are dealing with a pattern that is no longer exceptional, but becoming dangerously normal.”
The European Commission responded swiftly, warning that the scenes unfolding in Italy are a “stark reminder” of the climate challenges facing the continent. EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius said in Brussels that the bloc must brace for an “era of intensifying climate volatility,” marked by alternating extremes of drought, fire, and flood.
“What we are seeing in Northern Italy is part of a broader pattern across Central Europe,” Sinkevičius told reporters. “It’s not just an Italian problem. From the Danube to the Po, Europe’s rivers are groaning under the pressure of more extreme hydrological cycles.”
Satellite images released by Copernicus, the EU’s Earth observation programme, show swollen rivers across southern Germany and Austria, with emergency measures being taken in parts of Switzerland and Slovenia as water levels rise.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) has estimated that flooding and other climate-related disasters could cost the EU €170 billion annually by 2050 if current trends continue. Italy, with its mountainous terrain, ageing infrastructure, and densely populated river basins, is particularly exposed.
A Region Reeling from Repetition
This is not the first time the Emilia-Romagna region has found itself in crisis. Last May, the same area was struck by historic floods that left 15 people dead and caused an estimated €8.5 billion in damages. Then too, the cause was a succession of “medicanes” – Mediterranean hurricanes – that dropped enormous volumes of water in short periods.
Environmental campaigners say that local governments have been too slow to adapt. “We cannot keep calling these once-in-a-century events,” said Laura Pignatti of Legambiente, an Italian environmental watchdog. “They’re happening every year. Our defences, our urban plans, our emergency response – all must be rethought from the ground up.”
Calls for an expanded EU disaster relief fund have grown louder, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expected to request emergency aid from Brussels in the coming days. Critics argue, however, that Europe’s current funding mechanisms are reactive rather than preventative.
“We are always paying for cleanup, never for prevention,” said Alberto Zanni, mayor of Lugo, a town partially submerged for the second time in 12 months. “We need EU investment in flood barriers, reforestation, and drainage infrastructure—not just sandbags after the fact.”
Public Patience Wearing Thin
For residents, the devastation is not just environmental or economic—it is deeply personal. Maria Cantelli, a 67-year-old retiree, stood on the muddy remains of what was once her garden in the town of Faenza.
“I lost everything last year, and I just finished rebuilding,” she said. “Now it’s all gone again. And still, they tell us this is just nature. No—this is not natural anymore.”
The frustration is echoed across the region, where many say promises made after the 2023 floods have yet to be fulfilled. Insurance claims remain unresolved. Reconstruction funds have trickled in slowly. And now, another round of losses.
With the European Parliament elections just weeks away, the political consequences of climate mismanagement may also begin to surface. Green parties have seized on the floods as evidence of the EU’s failure to enforce its own climate adaptation goals, while populists have pointed to Brussels’ sluggish response.
But amid the recriminations, one fact is beyond dispute: as the waters rise, so too does the cost of inaction.
