Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said on Wednesday that some areas had received half their average annual rainfall in just 36 hours, causing rivers to burst their banks, sending water cascading through towns and submerging thousands of acres of farmland.
Sunday's Formula One Grand Prix in Imola, which is close to many of the worst-hit areas, was called off in an effort to relieve pressure on emergency services and prevent motor racing fans from converging on the inundated region.
"We are facing catastrophic events that have probably not been seen before," the president of the Emilia-Romagna region Stefano Bonaccini told reporters.
"Extraordinary amounts of rain have fallen on land no longer capable of absorbing them."
The Adriatic coastal city of Ravenna, famed for its early Christian heritage sites, was badly affected. The local interior ministry representative said some 14,000 people would have to be evacuated from the area as soon as possible.
Authorities said flooding had hit 37 towns and communities and around 120 landslides had been registered. At least one bridge, near the city of Bologna, collapsed, some roads were undermined by floodwaters and many rail services were suspended.
Nine bodies had been retrieved from various locations, Bonaccini said. Irene Priolo, vice president of the region, told reporters that although the rains were easing, river levels were still rising.
Civil Protection Minister Musumeci said he would ask the cabinet to find £20 million ($NZ40 million) for the affected area when it meets on May 23 to consider relief measures.
Government officials said tax and mortgage payments would be suspended for flood-hit regions during the emergency.
Floods follow months of drought
It was the second time this month that Emilia-Romagna has been battered by bad weather, with at least two people dying during storms at the beginning of May.
The torrential rain months of drought which had dried out the land, reducing its capacity to absorb water and worsening the impact of the floods, meteorologists said.
Muddy waters flowed through the historic centres of Faenza, Cesena and Forli, washing over the roofs of parked cars, submerging some stores and forcing locals to flee to the top stories of their homes.
Drone footage from the Imola race circuit showed part of the paddock area under water. Organisers said the decision to call off the Grand Prix had been taken "because it is not possible to safely hold the event for our fans, the teams and our personnel".
"It's probably been the worst night in the history of Romagna," Ravenna Mayor Michele de Pascale told RAI public radio, saying 5000 people were evacuated from his city on Tuesday night.
"Ravenna is unrecognisable after the damage it has suffered."
Minister Musumeci said between 200mm to 500mm of rain fell in some parts of the region in one and a-half days, compared with average annual rainfall of 1000mm.
Nearly 250,000 flee flooding in Somalia
Floods have caused almost a quarter of a million people to flee their homes after the Shabelle river in central Somalia broke its banks and submerged the town of Beledweyne, even as the country faces its most severe drought in four decades, according to the government.
Aid agencies and scientists have warned climate change is among the key factors accelerating humanitarian emergencies, while those impacted are some of the least responsible for CO2 emissions.
Seasonal rains in Somalia and upstream in the Ethiopian highlands triggered flash floods that washed away homes, crops, and livestock, and temporarily closed schools and hospitals in Beledweyne, the capital of Hiraan region, local residents said on Wednesday.
"At once the entire city was underwater. Beledweyne itself became like an ocean," said shopkeeper Ahmed Nur, whose business was washed away.
"Only the roofs of the houses could be seen. We used small boats and tractors to rescue people," he said.
Nur has been staying with relatives on the edge of the city which, just weeks earlier, had been celebrating the end of the crippling drought.
"Rain came, we were happy. People planted their crops," he said.
The drought, coupled with violence and a spike in food prices caused by the war in Ukraine, killed as many as 43,000 people last year, according to United Nations figures.
Since mid-March the floods have affected more 460,000 nationwide and killed 22, according to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA).
The Somali Disaster Management Agency said the floods in Beledweyne alone have caused the displacement of more than 245,000 people.
"Recovery from six consecutive seasons of poor rainfall performance will take time," OCHA said in a May 14 report.
The rains are recharging water sources and enabling vegetation to regenerate, however, it will take much more rainfall to effectively alleviate the impact of the recent drought, OCHA said in a report.
After back-to-back disasters, at least one resident of Beledweyne, Halima Abdullahi, said she had seen enough, making her one of the 216 million people the World Bank predicts could be compelled to move within their own country by 2050 because of climate stress.
"We shall move to villages far away," said the mother of two children. "Beledweyne no longer exists."
