A Maltese man has come face to face with Italy’s disastrous floods and is doing what he can to help those hit by the wall of water.

“It’s a warzone. It’s something out of this world,” high-end car detailer Ricky Sultana said.

These people are exhausted and have lost everything, their cars and homes- Ricky Sultana in Faenza

Two weeks after first getting heavy rain, the northern Italy region of Emilia Romagna has witnessed major flooding since Tuesday as 21 rivers broke their banks within a day.

The death toll in the region is on the rise as water continues to pour down. So far, 14 people have been reported dead as homes and farms have been left ruined and cars swept away.

Sultana told Times of Malta what it has been like to be in the middle of a natural disaster that seems to have no end in sight.

On the first night of the flooding, neither he nor his wife were able to sleep as they continuously peeked out of their window to see where the water had reached while their minds never wandered away from their five-year-old child asleep in the next room.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, never in my life,” he said as he described what it was like to fear the oncoming water.

“I want to wake up from a bad dream.”

'Worse than COVID'

Along with his wife and neighbours, Sultana has been shovelling mud and murky water out of people’s homes and off the streets of Faenza where he lives, clearing the way for the authorities to rescue those in danger.

“These people are exhausted and have lost everything, their cars and homes,” he said.

To help move the bucket-loads more efficiently, Sultana bought water pumps, a purchase that will not happen again because every hardware store in the area has sold out.

“All food supplies from our local supermarkets are nearly gone,” Sultana said. “It seems worse than COVID.

“Everyone is coming together which is something beautiful,” he said, adding that nobody planned their efforts but their coordination happened naturally as everyone “volunteered where they could”.

Water four to five metres high

On Thursday, Sultana finished his clean-up efforts at 10pm. He described cars piled together on a street corner and television sets and fridges floating by while people tried to sleep on plastic sheets, their beds ruined in the deep water.

He said no words would do justice to the image of streets full of water four to five metres high.

“I’m trying to paint a picture but I can’t, you have to see it with your own eyes.”

Amid desperate residents and mountains of murk, Sultana experienced moments of peace during the non-stop surge of panic and fear.

“Just by greeting people with a hello, you see their eyes light up. And that’s just by walking by and asking how they are, let alone picking up a shovel and throwing mud out of their homes and off the street.”

As Sultana spoke, he received a weather alert that said the heavy downpour would continue through to the evening.

“All this panic and all this emotion is not over,” he said.

“You walk down a street where children used to play and you don’t recognise it.”

Sultana and his wife have lived in Faenza for the past four years due to Sultana’s job as a high-end car detailer for Formula One team Scuderia AlphaTauri, whose factory is in the area.

Water only 500 metres away

The factory is untouched because it is on high ground and Sultana’s house has also escaped harm but only by a stone’s throw.

“We are scared for our own safety because the water is only 500 metres from our house.”

He puts this down to sheer luck as the flood seems to have been stopped by some elevated railway tracks. But he is constantly worried about what-ifs.

“You don’t know if the river will collapse and if it does and we are close to it... then you are going to be in big trouble.”

Sultana and his wife have prepared escape plans in case of an emergency, such as preparing bicycles if they need to weave through traffic or using a dingy that was given to volunteers by local firefighters.

“We had such a beautiful town here,” he lamented.

This weekend’s Formula One Grand Prix, due to be held at Imola, was called off due to the floods as the race organisers worried about the safety of fans, teams and personnel.

“It would not be right to put further pressure on the local authorities and emergency services at this difficult time,” Formula One said in a statement on Wednesday.