Crazy weather!

Last night felt like the end of the world! Seriously! I have never seen storms like this one after the other-wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning that shook the top floor of our apartment building (I know first hand since that's where we live). Crazy!
Then the cherry on top of the very wet cake was to wake up to a flood in the kitchen-how do you have a flood on the top floor do you ask? Well, our cooking area has these vents, which due to the genius of Italian engineering, don't close, so when it rains the rain comes in and I feel like Winnie the Pooh in the movie where him and Piglet are floating down the river on the tree trunk...Anyway, after cleaning up the flood I got to go out in it! And here is where we come to the real point of this entry-

How is it possible for a European capital city to enter into a panic when it rains? Flooding, trees down, car accidents etc. etc. etc. People can't get to work, can't drive their cars, because the flooding causes the engines to get wet and stall. It's incredible. I'm wondering if other cities have this problem, and if they don't do their civil engineers want to come clean up our mess??? I expect something like this in San Diego or the desert where it never rains, but not in Rome.