Season’s worth of rain leads to deadly flooding across northern Italy

( Accuweather )

Torrential rainfall produced severe flooding across northern Italy this week, leaving at least nine people dead and prompting the evacuation of thousands, according to Italian authorities.

The heaviest rain fell over the Emilia-Romagna region, where the region's vice president, Irene Priolo, said Wednesday at least eight people were killed, with others unaccounted for and more than 10,000 people had evacuated.

The deluge also forced the cancellation of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, a race held by Formula One, to protect those attending the event and to avoid placing an additional burden on emergency services.

"The decision has been taken because it is not possible to safely hold the event for our fans, the teams and our personnel and it is the right and responsible thing to do given the situation faced by the towns and cities in the region," Formula One officials said in a statement released on Wednesday. "It would not be right to put further pressure on the local authorities and emergency services at this difficult time."

Nearly a foot of rain fell in some areas of the region, with one of the highest totals falling over San Savino Di Modigliana, with about 10.02 inches (254.4 mm) of rain, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Roys.

At a briefing, the Italian Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said that an average of 7.9 inches (200 mm) of rain had fallen in 36 hours in the region, with some areas recording 19.7 inches (500 mm) within the same span of time. The intense rainfall in the region started Tuesday morning, local time.

"If you consider that this region averages 1,000 mm (39.3 inches) of rain in a year, you realize the impact that these rains have had in these hours," he said.

Roys added that for some locations, the amount of rain that fell was equal to that of an entire spring season of rain, during which amounts of between 5 and 8 inches are typically measured.

"While much of the spring and winter has been dry, it has been a wet month so far in the region," Roys said. "Prior to the heavy rainfall Tuesday, Bologna has already seen 8.37 inches of rain. The normal amount for the month is 6.82 inches."