![]() ![]() A city website said the city had “created an inventory of concrete buildings,” although someone removed that mention after an NBC News reporter requested a copy. The existence of the list was previously reported by KPIX-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle, but its actual contents have never been published before. The most deadly since the start of the 20th century came in 1908, when an earthquake followed by a tsunami killed an estimated 80,000 people in the southern regions of Reggio Calabria and Sicily.The city official tasked with overseeing the production of the list expressed concern that publishing it could prematurely cause uneasiness among tenants, investors and others before building owners have a chance to do thorough evaluations. The last major earthquake to hit the country struck the central city of L’Aquila in 2009, killing more than 300 people. Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe. It seemed the bed was walking across the room by itself with us on it,” Lina Mercantini of Ceselli, Umbria, about 75 km away from the hardest hit area, told Reuters. Residents of Rome were woken by the tremors, which rattled furniture, swayed lights and set off car alarms in most of central Italy. The damage was made more severe because the epicenter was at a relatively shallow 4 km below the surface of the earth. ![]() INGV reported 150 aftershocks in the 12 hours following the initial quake, the strongest measuring 5.5. Geological Survey, which measured the quake at 6.2 magnitude, said it struck near the Umbrian city of Norcia, while Italy’s earthquake institute INGV registered it at 6.0 and put the epicenter further south, closer to Accumoli and Amatrice. Most of the damage was in the Lazio and Marche regions. to restore hope to this area which has been so badly hit,” he said in a brief televised address.Ī spokeswoman for the civil protection department, Immacolata Postiglione, said the dead were in Amatrice, Accumoli and other villages including Pescara del Tronto and Arquata del Tronto. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he would visit the disaster area later in the day: “No one will be left alone, no family, no community, no neighborhood. The national Civil Protection Department said some survivors would be put up elsewhere in central Italy, while others would be housed in tents that were being dispatched to the area. Wide cracks had appeared like open wounds on the buildings that were still standing. Residents responding to wails muffled by tonnes of bricks and mortar sifted through the rubble with their bare hands before emergency services arrived with earth-moving equipment and sniffer dogs. Stefano Petrucci, mayor of nearby Accumoli, said some 2,500 people were left homeless in the local community, made up of 17 hamlets. There are voices under the rubble, we have to save the people there.” “The aim now is to save as many lives as possible. “Three quarters of the town is not there anymore,” Amatrice mayor Sergio Pirozzi told state broadcaster RAI. Patients at the badly damaged hospital in Amatrice were moved into the streets. Scores more will still believed unaccounted for, with the presence of the summer holidaymakers making it difficult to tally. The national Civil Protection Department gave the official death toll of 73 at about 12 hours after the pre-dawn quake struck. “It’s terrible, I’m 65-years-old and I have never experienced anything like this, small tremors, yes, but nothing this big. “It’s all young people here, it’s holiday season, the town festival was to have been held the day after tomorrow so lots of people came for that,” said Amatrice resident Giancarlo, sitting in the road wearing just his underwear. Many of those killed or missing were visitors. Rescue workers used helicopters to pluck trapped survivors to safety in the more isolated villages, which had been cut off by landslides and rubble.Īerial photographs showed whole areas of Amatrice, voted last year as one of Italy’s most beautiful historic towns, flattened by the 6.2 magnitude quake. At the Vatican, Pope Francis cancelled part of his general audience to pray for the victims. The army was mobilized to help with special heavy equipment and the treasury released 235 million euros ($265 million) of emergency funds. ![]()
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