NEWNow you can listen to the articles from Fox News!
Floods triggered by heavy rains wiped out several cities in a hilly region of central Italy early Friday, killing 10 people and at least four missing, authorities said. Dozens of survivors climbed onto roofs or trees waiting for help.
“It was not a water bomb, it was a tsunami,” Riccardo Pasqualini, the mayor of Barbara, told state radio, speaking of the sudden downpour on Thursday evening that devastated his small town in the Marche region, near the Adriatic Sea.
He said the flooding left Barbara’s 1,300 residents without clean water and unpredictable telephone service.
People walk on mud and debris in Senigallia, Italy on Friday, September 16, 2022.
(Gabriele Moroni / LaPresse via AP)
A mother and her young daughter also disappeared after trying to escape the flood, the mayor told the Italian news agency ANSA.
PAKISTAN, 1,000 DEAD OF INFLUENZA PASS IN ‘CLIMATIC CATASTROPHE’
While firefighters reported at least seven confirmed deaths and three missing, RAI state TV quoted the local prefect’s office as saying there were 10 confirmed deaths.
Two children, including a boy swept from Barbara’s mother’s arms, were among the four people still missing late Friday morning. About 50 people were treated in hospitals for their injuries.
People walk on mud and debris in Senigallia, Italy on Friday, September 16, 2022.
(Gabriele Moroni / LaPresse via AP)
Many of the 300 firefighters engaged in the rescue operations waded waist-deep in flooded streets, while others used rubber boats to collect survivors along their path.
Firefighters tweeted that dozens of people who were trapped in cars or climbed rooftops or climbed trees to escape the increasing floods had been rescued.
Kentucky flood death toll reaches 40, the latest victim died during clean-up efforts
Police officers from the municipality of Sassoferrato told of the rescue of a man trapped in a car. Unable to reach it, they stretched out a long branch, which the man clung to and then the agents pulled him to safety.
Helicopters were also used to rescue seven people in the most remote locations of the Apennines, which form the backbone of central Italy. Flood water invaded garages and basements and with its weight and strength knocked down the doors.
“It was an extreme event, more than exceptional,” climatologist Massimiliano Fazzini told Italian state television.
People help an elderly woman after heavy rains and deadly floods hit Italy’s central Marche region in Cantiano, Italy on September 16, 2022.
(REUTERS / Yara Nardi)
He said that, according to his calculations, the amount of rain that fell, concentrated in four hours which included a particularly intense period of 15 minutes, was the highest in hundreds of years.
Within hours, the region was flooded with the amount of rainfall it usually receives in six months, state TV said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Some of the worst floods hit the city of Senigallia and its surroundings, where a river overflowed its banks.
Even the hilltop villages near the Renaissance tourist town of Urbino were flooded as fast-moving rivers of water, mud, and debris flowed through the streets.
