A violent tornado also hit the border between the two provinces, affecting the Castelfranco Emilia area, as well as Sant'Agata Bolognese, before moving towards the North of the Bologna province, between Argelato and San Pietro in Casale.
According to Coldiretti, grapevines, pear and apple trees as well as melons and watermelon crops have been damaged. Pears seem to be the most affected, as they are already ripe.
Coldiretti announced that the damage to fruits and vegetables is not likely to be recuperated, and should also worsen as the produce grows, affecting quality.
Regarding damage assessment, Coldiretti explains that "only in the next few hours it will be possible to make an assessment on damages, which will add up to difficulties and delay - at least 50 days on average - caused by this year's abundant rainfall."
On top of damaged houses and cars, Confagricoltura also points out damage to barns, greenhouses and warehouses as well as fallen trees and collapsed pylons. Hail also destroyed open field crops.
Mario Guidi, chairman of Confagricoltura, explains that "it happened in the same area of last year's earthquake, so damages add up to the previous ones, affecting those sectors and activities that were already struggling."
"The government should intervene promptly with suitable measures that take into account the dramatic situation that the population was already living in. It should tackle the issues of recovery and development, as well as the economic and tax questions that are burdening those farmers working on areas that are already troubled."
On his part, Tiberio Rabboni, councillor for Agriculture of the Emilia-Romagna region, announced an urgent meeting to activate the procedures needed to declare the state of "natural disaster".
"The damages to agriculture caused by the tornado and hailstorms on 3rd May are rather serious, and they add up to those caused by the draught and earthquake of 2012 and by the abundant rainfall of the last few months. We will meet up with the Provinces and the agricultural associations from the affected municipalities at the beginning of the week in order to start the procedure for the Ministry of Agriculture to declare the state of natural disaster, so the national Solidarity Fund can intervene to compensate for material damage and to exempt affected companies from tax, social security and contribution payments."
On top of the problems caused by the bad weather, a 3.8 (MI) earthquake was recorded at 7.11 am on May 4th by the INGV in the Padan Plain, between the Ferrara and Rovigo provinces.
