2023-05-17 13:48:00
The streets of many localities were submerged by water after heavy rainfall. The Imola F1 Grand Prix has been cancelled.
By HR with AFP
© ALESSANDRO SERRANO / AFP
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Lhe sixth stage of the Formula 1 world championship will be postponed. The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was to be held from May 19 to 21 at the Imola circuit, but the recent floods, which caused the death of 9 people in this region of Italy, led to this decision.
“Following discussions between Formula One, the president of the International Automobile Federation, the competent authorities, including the ministers concerned, the president of the Italian Automobile Club, the president of the Emilia-Romagna region, the mayor of the city and the promoter, the decision has been taken that the Grand Prix will not take place in Imola”, explained the promoters of F1 without however announcing a possible date of rescheduling of the race by the end of season.
50,000 people without electricity
In front of the press, the vice-president of the Emilia-Romagna region, Irene Priolo, deplored a particularly deadly toll: “Unfortunately the number of victims has worsened”, declared to the press Irene Priolo, vice-president of the region, estimating at “more than 10,000” the number of people evacuated.
The regional authorities have so far reported nine deaths, the majority of them in the regions of Forli and Cesena.
The streets of many localities in the plain were submerged by water after heavy rainfall and many inhabitants found themselves trapped, forced to take refuge in the floors or on the roofs of their houses, while many local roads were impassable.
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According to Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci, 50,000 people are without electricity. “If we had designed a rainwater distribution network capable of absorbing 1,000 millimeters in 12 months, we must now think of a system that will have to absorb 500 millimeters in 48 hours,” he commented. “Nothing will be like before, because this process of tropicalization that is rising from Africa also involves Italy,” added Mr. Musumeci.
” It’s the end of the world “
“I, who was born here, have never seen this, this time we are really scared,” Simona Matassoni, owner of the Savio hotel in Cesena, on the Adriatic coast, told AFP. phone. The emergency services evacuated thousands of people, rescuing children and the elderly on the backs of men, on board inflatable boats or by helicopter.
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On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, residents of the vicinity of the commune of Forli, where the first victim was found, fled barefoot, shocked, in the dark, with water up to their chests, according to a AFP photographer on site. “It’s the end of the world,” lamented the mayor of Forli, Gian Luca Zattini, on Facebook.
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