Floods kill 9 Italian The northern region of Emilia-Romagna has caused billions of dollars in damage, with agriculture hit particularly hard, the regional chief said on Thursday.

Torrential rains this week devastated the eastern part of the region known as Romagna, causing as many as 300 landslides, flooding 23 rivers, damaging or destroying some 400 roads and flooding 42 cities.

“We are facing a new earthquake,” Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Emilia-Romagna region, told reporters, recalling the earthquake that hit the region in 2012 and destroyed Thousands of houses.

Since then, Bonaccini noted, “nearly everything” has been rebuilt. “Experience tells us that it can be done, and we will (again) rebuild everything. I have no doubts about that.”

More than 5,000 farms were flooded in the region, including a so-called “fruit valley”, as well as fields of corn and cereals, according to the Coldiretti agricultural association.

“We’ve estimated the damage (from those floods) to be close to 1 billion euros, so imagine how much that number will increase with new disasters,” Bonaccini said, adding that it was too early to give exact figures.

The floods are the latest in a string of extreme weather events to hit Italy over the past year, as unusual disasters used to be a routine part of life.

The government has pledged nearly $22 million in emergency aid, in addition to about $10 million for flooding that killed at least two people two weeks ago.

manufacturer of luxury sports cars ferraribased in Emilia-Romagna, announced a major donation.

At least 10,000 people were forced from their homes, and many who remained in flooded areas were left without power. One of the dead was washed away from her home and onto a beach about 20 miles away.

In the town of Cesena, the rain stopped and the floodwaters largely receded, allowing locals to rejoin their mud-damaged homes, including Maurizio Cola and Rafael, who fled early Wednesday La Zanni (Raffaella Zanni) and his wife.