The Globe and Mail

My daughter and I are standing on the Cestio bridge, a small architectural marvel which connects the west bank of central Rome to the Tiber Island, a 270-metre-long island built in the shape of a boat by the ancient Romans. Today, as the rain pours down and the Tiber rises, the island really does look like a boat, one that is getting smaller by the hour.

Four days of near-endless, torrential rains have raised the river to the point the island is about half its normal size. If the water goes much higher, the old hospital on the upstream end of the endless could get flooded. The trees that ring the island are more than half buried in the muddy, fast-moving water. A wharf on the other side of the river, along with the tour boat attached to it, has broken from its moorings and threatens to sweep downstream, smashing into bridges along the way.

The floods, some of the worst Rome has seen since the Paris-style river embankments were built in the 1870s, forced the mayor Giovani Alemano to declare state of emergency. “This is like an unprecedented earthquake,” he said on Thursday. “In one night we had more rain than we usually have in all of December.”
 
The river has risen by about five metres in two days and was expected to crest later today, though more rain is predicted. Traffic has come to a near standstill. A transport strike scheduled for today was called off, for fear of making the traffic worse.

Lakes have formed around the Colosseum and in underpasses everywhere. On her way to school in a bus on Thursday, my daughter spotted several cars half under water. Police were trying to get the passengers out of one of the cars. The Rome Fire Brigade said it has evacuated dozens of people trapped vehicles.

At least one fatality has been recorded. Bruna Carrara, a 54-year-old cleaner, was found inside a car submerged in four metres of water in a suburban underpass. The police said she had phoned for help. But the police didn't get there in time. The passenger door was jammed and the driver's door was pressed against the underpass wall.

Elsewhere in the city, civil protection units were distributing sandbags to people who lived in ground floor apartments. Even people who live on the top floors of apartment buildings are vulnerable as drains back up. A few days ago, one of our toilets did a plausible imitation of a geyser, a remarkable achievement given that we live on the second floor and our apartment building is on a hill.

Rome isn't the only city getting hammered by the deluge. Venice has been flooded almost two weeks. Hotels are offering tourists free boots so they can slosh around the city. In the south, a man reportedly died when a bridge collapsed on him. Trains and traffic throughout the country have been impeded by flooded roads and broken trees.

The severe weather wasn't a crisis for everyone. The bridges on and near the Tiber Island were packed with Romans seemingly enjoying the spectacle. They snapped pictures with there camera phones. One group of flood-watchers got all excited when they spotted large furry animal swimming among a thicket of broken tree branches. It looked like a muskrat, a welcome sight in a city of rats and pigeons. "He looks happy," one of the bystanders said.