Italy had 5 major floods in a week. Cities like Genoa, Alessandria, Parma, Verbania, and today also Saturnia in Tuscany, suffered heavy damages, and a few died swept away by those waterbombs.
The newspapers keep telling that the guilty party is a faulty Administration and bureaucracy, while there's nothing to do when a basin large enough to contain a 500.000 litre/sec. river, switch suddenly to 1 million litre/sec. of water.
Mud and water usually destroy everything they touch, especially the house's basement floor. An old guy told me some years ago that during the 1966 Florence flood, the waters swept away a ton-loaded pig-iron safe from a corner of a jewel shop like a rubber ball...
My mind went to my garage, in the basement of the house. If a thing like that do happen, it could destroy 2 cars, stored food and hundreds of tools in the blink of an eye! It could be a real tragedy.
Better to move some stuff upstairs, expecially food, and expecially if your house stands near a river flow.