Evacuations ordered in central Italy due to cold weather, rainfall

ROME, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- A wave of cold weather and rain continued to sweep through Italy on Tuesday, with freezing temperatures and partial floods registered in northern and central regions, authorities and local media said.

About 1,000 people were evacuated from Lentigione in the northeast Reggio Emilia province after a local river burst its banks amid heavy rains, according to Ansa news agency.

Waters flooded both residential and industrial areas in the town, Ansa reported.

Others were rescued from a nearby location near the major Po River.

Overall, some 2,100 people were evacuated in the central Emilia Romagna region, the local Civil Protection chief, Maurizio Mainetti, told radio station Radio24.

Some train routes were disrupted for the second day in a row in northern and central Italy.

In the northwest Liguria region, local rivers were closely watched for fear of floods. The alert was particularly high there since torrential rainfalls left at least six people dead in 2011 and one in 2014.

Since Monday afternoon, some 12,000 people had reportedly lost power in the central Piacenza province; in some municipalities in the area, phone lines and traffic on local roads were also disrupted, according to Ansa.

The Italian Civil Protection agency issued a red alert for high hydro-geological risk (maximum level of warning) for the plain and the western hills of Emilia Romagna for Tuesday and Wednesday.

An orange level weather warning (indicating moderate risk) was issued for the rest of Emilia Romagna, and for Veneto and most of Friuli Venezia Giulia regions in the northeast for Wednesday.

Extensive snowfall has been forecast all across northern Italy this week, due to a wave of freezing weather coming from the Atlantic Ocean, the agency stated on Monday. Enditem