Severe storms killed two people and forced evacuations across Italy, Slovenia and Croatia

A band of severe storms tore across northeastern Italy, the Slovenian coast and parts of Croatia over two days this week, dumping record rainfall, triggering flash flooding, and killing two women. The system disrupted rail travel, forced dozens of residents from their homes ahead of a moving landslide, and left port and coastal towns cleaning up debris well after the rain stopped.

Two deaths in Italy from a single overnight system

Both fatalities occurred in Italy on September 10. In Latisana, in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, a woman became trapped in her car inside a flooded underpass; a Carabinieri officer entered the rising water and pulled her free, but she died despite the rescue attempt, and the officer himself was later hospitalized. Separately, in Sinalunga in Siena Province, a woman in her eighties died after a strong wind gust shattered a window she was trying to close, and a fragment of glass severed a vein in her leg, causing fatal blood loss before help could arrive.

Rainfall totals that overwhelmed drainage in hours, not days

The scale of the rainfall explains why flooding developed so quickly. Regional meteorological data put 24-hour totals at 203 millimeters, or about 8 inches, in Lignano Sabbiadoro and 177 millimeters, roughly 7 inches, in Latisana, with more than 135 millimeters of that falling in Lignano Sabbiadoro in just the first three hours of the storm. That kind of concentrated downpour routinely exceeds what urban drainage systems and rural underpasses are built to handle, which is why flooded underpasses became a focal point of the damage rather than slower-rising river flooding.

A landslide forces dozens from their homes in Lombardy

Further west, in Val Masino in Lombardy, movement of the Scaiun landslide sent large quantities of debris, rock and broken trees downslope overnight, prompting the evacuation of 45 people from the village of Cataeggio. Local schools closed while authorities assessed whether the slope remained unstable enough to threaten further movement, a precaution common after a landslide event where the underlying ground has already shown it can fail again with additional rainfall or simple gravity acting on already-loosened material.

Rail disruption spreads the impact well beyond the flooded towns

The storms also disrupted rail service across a wider stretch of northeastern Italy. Flooded underpasses were reported in Latisana, San Giorgio di Nogaro and Torviscosa, while train operations between Portogruaro and Trieste were heavily disrupted by lightning, torrential rain and related infrastructure faults. Rail operators deployed replacement buses at Trieste and Portogruaro to keep passengers moving, though delays of about an hour became common as crews worked to clear the affected sections.

Coastal flooding and port disruption in Slovenia and Croatia

The system pushed into Slovenia with nearly 65 millimeters of rain falling along the coast in just two hours, flooding buildings, businesses and the historic Tartini Square in the town of Piran. Strong winds at the Port of Koper overturned shipping containers and forced a temporary restriction on truck access to the container terminal, while roughly 60 firefighters with 14 vehicles worked along the coast clearing fallen trees and pumping water out of flooded buildings in Koper and Piran. In Croatia, the city of Rijeka reported intense, short-duration rainfall that produced strong flash runoff, washing construction material onto a lower section of Vukovarska Street before crews cleared and secured the site; the city had placed emergency services on standby ahead of an official severe-thunderstorm warning covering the same two-day window.

A regional government response focused on recovery, not rescue

Officials in Friuli Venezia Giulia confirmed the Latisana death publicly and said the region’s Civil Protection service was actively supporting communities dealing with the storm’s aftermath, coordinating the kind of cleanup and infrastructure assessment that follows flash flooding once the immediate rescue phase has passed. That shift from emergency response to recovery played out unevenly across the affected area: while crews in Koper and Piran worked through standing water and downed trees, authorities in Val Masino were still evaluating whether the Scaiun landslide posed further risk to the evacuated village of Cataeggio, meaning some communities faced an active hazard assessment even as others had moved on to cleanup.

Croatia’s national weather service had flagged the risk in advance

The severe weather did not arrive without warning. Croatia’s national meteorological and hydrological service, DHMZ, had issued an orange-level thunderstorm alert covering the same window in which the storms struck, specifically citing the potential for gale-force gusts, hail, heavy short-duration rainfall, flash flooding and traffic disruption. That advance warning gave Rijeka’s emergency services time to place crews on standby before the rain intensified, illustrating how, even when a forecast correctly flags the type and severity of a coming storm, the concentrated rainfall totals recorded in places like Lignano Sabbiadoro and along the Slovenian coast can still overwhelm drainage and road infrastructure faster than warnings alone can prevent damage or loss of life.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited by Morning Overview staff.

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