Nine days after an earthquake of 5.9-magnitude (ARIA 42563), a second seism of 5.8-magnitude struck Emilia-Romagna at 9 am. The additional damage to previously weakened structures increased the already heavy toll by 16 deaths, 350 injured, 14,000 homeless. The collapse of buildings previously damaged by the 20 May quake exposed the difficulty inherent in conducting an accurate assessment of building resistance subsequent to a major event and during economically challenging times.

The two earthquakes were responsible for damaging hundreds of industrial and agricultural installations. Some 15,000 employees had to be laid-off: 5,000 in mechanical industry jobs, 4,000 in food processing, 4,000 in the biomedical industry and 2,000 in ceramics production. Immediate and deferred losses amounted to several billion euros.