In Italy, flooded regions where Russians are most loved

In the north of Italy, after prolonged downpours, rivers overflowed their banks. More than 20 settlements flooded. 14 people died. Thousands have fled their homes. Russians living in Italy spoke about the situation in the region.

Flood-affected regions are not considered tourist centers. There are few Russians living there. But the consequences of the disaster are watched by all the inhabitants of the country.

– The government promises to quickly deal with the consequences of the flood. Now fire services and police are working in the affected regions. Volunteers were involved in the analysis of the rubble, – says Andrei, a resident of Bologna. – The death toll has risen to 14. Almost 5 thousand people were taken to nearby cities where there is no destruction.

The Italians themselves are indignant at where the money went, which was intended for ecology, cleaning up rivers and additional structures from destructive natural phenomena. People hope that there will be an investigation into the use of public funds that could have been misused.

Maria lives in Naples. According to her, some Italians are calling on the government to resign.

– Recently, it has become fashionable to blame all the troubles on climate change. But the Italians are disappointed in the authorities. They call on the authorities to resign, – the woman says. – True, for starters, they must reimburse everything to the last euro for people who have lost loved ones, lost their homes, businesses. It seems that everyone was promised to provide assistance, but it is interesting whether the money will go to the victims this time without additional bureaucratic procedures and hundreds of papers to fill out.

I have friends living in flooded cities. For example, they do not understand why the state does not fully bear the cost of restoring the region. In social networks, Italian citizens are asked to organize assistance and clear the rubble themselves. And it will take a long time to rake.

The locals are also surprised where the migrants have hidden. Why don’t they help clean up the trash?

Also, the people are perplexed why citizens were not evacuated from the “red zones” in advance. After all, the flood was warned two days in advance. The authorities could organize an evacuation, help to move. Apparently, there were no funds for this. Who could get out himself. The rest remained.

Some elderly Italians who live in isolated areas were not aware of the impending disaster at all.

Albina lives in a flood zone, but her city did not suffer much: “Something terrible is happening with the weather. In 36 hours, a three-month rainfall fell, which led to flooding. Too many small settlements have been affected, so no one will tell you the full picture. We follow the news ourselves. I know that electricity has been restored somewhere, but somewhere people are still cut off from the world.

Not many Russian speakers live in the affected regions, and in general there are only about 37 thousand Russians in Italy. From the former USSR, there are the most Moldovans here.

It can be said about the affected region that Russians are most loved there. In any case, I think so. That region (Emilia-Romagna. – “MK”) is included in the so-called red belt, where there was an active partisan movement. It was there that the Italian communists lived. So there is great love for the USSR in those places.”

Maria lives in Lombardy. The woman spoke about the situation: “It seems that the water is leaving. But there remains a lot of dirt and destruction due to landslides. Almost every year there are floods, but not of this magnitude. Therefore, near the rivers, apartments on the ground floor cost a penny. There is no demand for them.

Now people complain that supposedly there was no evacuation. But I heard that people were still taken out of there. There were simply those who did not hear about it or did not want to leave their homes.

At the moment, it is difficult to drive to some of the affected cities, there are many destroyed roads. In social networks, they write that highways are flooded, some cities near the sea are in the water. Yesterday the Turin-Naples trains were canceled or the trains were running with huge delays. The train station in Florence was in chaos due to canceled trains.”

A woman who lives near the flooded city of Faenza spoke on social networks: “Now all residents are invited to evacuate to safe areas. Several hotels were allocated to people and food was provided. Schools are closed. Rescue workers are trying to persuade those who remain to leave the region. Apparently, they are afraid of another flood.”

Nevertheless, the flood did not stop the Russians from traveling to Italy. On social networks, one man asked about the weather in the flooded Emilia-Romagna in July.

They answered him: “The heat will come, and in a week they will forget about the flood. Everything as usual. So feel free to come.”