ROME – Storm Boris has struck Emilia-Romagna, displacing over a thousand people and leaving two people missing. Irene Priolo, acting president of Emilia-Romagna, told the RAI public radio that 250mm of rain had fallen, causing three rivers to overflow. This comes as the storm Boris has already claimed the lives of 23 people as it has moved west across Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Austria.

 The mayor of the Emilia-Romagna town, Ravenna, told Radio 24 that “We are in a full emergency.” So far, the national fire department has carried out over 500 rescue operations in the area. Local schools, libraries, and parks have all been forced to shut and the University of Bologna has cancelled exams and lessons. Local authorities are concerned storm Boris may have a possible widespread “domino” effect with the neighbouring regions of Tuscany and Marche already experiencing floods and mudslides.

 Despite President Sergio Mattarella’s call for “unity,” the floods have started a game of political point scoring. The Civil Protection Minister, Nello Musumeci, has accused Emilia Romagna for not completing the necessary work to prevent such flooding from taking place, despite sufficient allocated funds. In a press conference at the Palazzo Chigi, Musumeci ironically said that he does not wish to be “problematic,” but he questions with what efficiency the 600 million euros provided by the government over the last decade, has been spent by Emilia-Romagna in order to fight against “hydrogeological instability.” Irene Priolo called the minister out for his fake façade of unity saying that emergencies are no time for whimsical point-scoring when people’s lives are at risk - this is a leitmotif which is all too often recalled in critical times, when real unity not finger-pointing is required. Priolo dismissed the accusation of allowing profiteering, and insisted that all funds had been put to good use to ensure that “all maintenance had been done.” This seems a bold claim as only one out of four projects planned after the 2023 flood, which claimed the lives of 13 people, has been completed.

 The people of Emilia-Romagna are left to wonder whether meaningful change can be implemented which will leave this wide-spread chaos as a thing of the past: both floods and political point-scoring. 

 tpw