"It wasn't a flood but a tsunami".
The mayor of Barbara, one of the most affected towns in Ancona, Riccardo Pasqualini, hands on his hips, widens his eyes in front of the bridge that connects the town to the Provincial Corinaldese while the firefighters inspect the lower part and the river bed almost dry until yesterday.
On the bridge, parts of barriers collapsed, a thick layer of mud, branches and large trees that firefighters are cutting with a chainsaw to restore traffic as a bobcat drags pieces of logs away.
A scenario of mud that in Pianello di Ostra damaged dozens and dozens of houses, even causing victims.
"I'm here to help my brother Mariano - Massimo tells us - he had to go up on the roof to save himself and his house is full of mud. The water has reached the floor above. Here the help has not been seen" .
Claudio is sitting in front of the house with a dog and a cat: "I took them with me to the roof. I got out when the water went down: we are safe".
Two friends, Salvatore and Valeria, try to play down: they set a table in front of the house while trying to restore the very difficult situation "We help each other - says Salvatore - but no help has been seen".
"I try to save some of my children's clothes - echoes Valeria -. Slowly we will leave again,
The Nevola swollen by the rains, in the Barbara area, has exceeded the height of the bridge near the Corinaldese, reaching the balconies on the first floor of the houses.
The flood left behind dead, missing, damage.
Streams like rivers, isolated hamlets, dozens of people saved on the roofs and transported by rafting boats, Senigallia toll booth closed.
Roads blocked in the area, many impassable roads, impassable bridges, firefighters and civil protection vehicles that have been working incessantly since tonight, telephone signal problems, Internet and blackouts.
Before the bridge, a two-story house with broken window panes on the ground floor.
Here Erina, 75 years old, died trying to close the windows.
"I saw death", she tells ANSA Vale, 41, of Albanian origin, in shock.
In the house he lives with his little daughter, his partner, his grandfather and his partner Erina who has died.
"My partner was working and I was resting yesterday, I was at home - remembers Vale, barefoot and with muddy feet -, otherwise my grandfather and my daughter would also have died. We saved ourselves by going upstairs".
In a neighboring house, the resident remembers: "In a moment everything was flooded. We saw the cars floating outside. We saved what could be saved and went upstairs. We threw ourselves on the bed for half an hour, I'm exhausted."
Behind the house, a few hundred meters away, another yellow house where yesterday evening Simone Bartolucci, 23, his mother Brunella Chiu, 56, and his sister Noemi, 17, were leaving by car to escape the fury of the river .
"We were leaving for the alert - Simone says -, the river took them away from me in front of her".
He was carried away by the current but managed to cling to a large plant.
"I was there two hours until I made it down."
Between Castelleone di Suasa in Arcevia, mother and son - Silvia Mereu, 56, pharmacist, rescued, and Mattia Luconi, 8, missing - swept away by car on a bridge submerged by mud and wood.
A resident of the Ripalta hamlet makes his way through the mud: "I go with my girlfriend to look for a generator, we are isolated, we have no light".
Huge damage also to companies including the Molino Paolo Mariani di Barbara, flooded, with "cisterns that turned in the water like a vortex and 1.5 meters of water - reports Danny Mariani, son of the owner -. tsunami, incredible if you don't experience it ".
The mayor of Barbara cannot understand the strength and speed of the wave, he speaks with the president of the Province Daniele Carnevali, also on the spot.
"The rains? No in my opinion, - the mayor speculates - it was as if something obstructed the course of the river, which went from 3 to 60 meters, then it 'unlocked', like the collapse of a dam, the world came down in a moment. A thud then the wave. It wasn't a flood but a tsunami. Responsibilities? We are resolving the situation, we'll see later. "