Around 13,000 have been evacuated and 11 people have died in northeastern Italy after flooding caused by six months of rain in one and a half days, the BBC reports. Worst hit is the Emilia-Romagna region.
20 rivers have overflowed in a stretch of 115 kilometers on the northeastern coast. About 280 landslides have occurred and more evacuations have been ordered overnight.
Barely five miles from Bologna, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street band will play a sold-out concert in front of a large audience at Parco Urbano in Ferrara on Thursday evening.
The concert has been heavily criticized both by residents of the area but also by concertgoers, given the disastrous weather conditions.
“Emilia-Romagna is on its knees, but here in Ferrara they don’t cancel the Bruce Springsteen concert or close the roads.
That is, they expect something like 50 (if not 100) tourist buses, don’t you think it’s dangerous to get there with the current conditions?” writes an angry person on Twitter in Italian.
“Please Springsteen consider rescheduling the gig. For all the people who cannot leave their homes, even though they have paid for a ticket, or even worse, those who no longer have a home.” writes another angry tweeter.
The storm has led, among other things, to the Emilia-Romagna grand prix on the Imola circuit, which was supposed to take place this weekend, forced to cancel. The F1 track is a little over eight kilometers from Ferrara.
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