Italy: At least 13 dead and 20K Homeless in Flooding

Facts

• As of Thursday, at least 13 people have been killed and 20K displaced as Italy experiences its worst flooding in nearly a century.¹
• Torrential rain in Italy's northern Emilia-Romagna region has triggered floods and landslides, with some regions having received half their average annual rainfall in only 36 hours, leading rivers to burst their banks and flood surrounding towns and farmland.²
• The flooding has reportedly seen at least 23 rivers overflow, impacting over 48 towns and resulting in at least 280 landslides so far.³
• The areas hardest hit by the flooding have been Bologna, with 15 floods and over 40 mudslides; Ravenna, with 13 floods and nearly 90 mudslides; and Forlì-Cesena, with 12 floods and over 100 mudslides.³
• Before the floods, Emilia-Romagna and other areas of northern Italy were impacted by a severe drought that dried out the land, which reduced its capacity to absorb water.¹
• The region is under a red alert, the highest level warning or state of emergency for life-threatening weather events, and 600 firefighters have been deployed from across Italy to assist with emergency evacuations.⁴

Sources: ¹Guardian, ²Reuters, ³Forbes, and ⁴CNN.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Guardian. Italy is a country that is particularly vulnerable to climate change, and these recent extreme weather events go to show just how deadly the effects of global warming are. These extreme weather events are just going to get worse, and the government needs to step up and prepare for them.
• Narrative B, as provided by FT. While the impacts of these floods are tragic, there's no evidence that climate change is to blame, as these types of catastrophes are usually influenced by a myriad of factors that have nothing to do with it. More research is needed before we can establish any direct causal link between the two.

Predictions