Abruzzo Earthquake – 235 Dead and 15 Missing. Drama of the Displaced

"Un aiuto subito" - “Un aiuto subito”, an appeal on behalf of communities affected by the Abruzzo earthquake, was launched within hours of the disaster by the Corriere della Sera, Corriere.it, the Gazzetta dello Sport, Gazzetta.it and City. WHAT TO DO – Anyone wishing to make a donation to help victims in the earthquake zone can do so by bank transfer or by credit card. BANK TRANSFER: Intesa-San Paolo, ABI 3069, CAB 05061, account number 1000/144, account name: “Un aiuto subito – Terremoto dell’Abruzzo”. IBAN: IT 03 B 03069 05061 100000000144 CREDIT CARD DONATIONS (CartaSi, MasterCard, Visa, American Express) CartaSi Freephone: 800 317800 (from some mobiles, dial 12 followed by the number) Calls from abroad: +39 02 34980235. Have your credit card ready and follow the recorded instructions.

At least 40 victims unidentified. Rescuers dig for survivors beneath the rubble
L’AQUILA – The toll is rising. Two hundred and thirty five people are now known to have died in the earthquake that ravaged Abruzzo on Sunday night. Forty of the victims have yet to be identified. Thirty-four people are missing and 1,500 injured. There are 17,000 displaced persons in total, of whom 10,000 are in L’Aquila and 7,210 in the province. The figures were supplied by civil defence sources.

RACE AGAINST TIME – Yet again for rescue workers, it is a race against time. As the hours tick by, hopes of finding more survivors under the rubble are fading. So far, more than 100 people have been pulled from the wreckage. Digging continued without interruption through the night at L’Aquila, and in neighbouring municipalities, despite the dozens of tremors that punctuated the darkness. The most violent, which came at 1.15 am, registered 4.8 on the Richter scale. At 2 am, twenty-three hours after the earthquake hit L’Aquila, Marta, a 24-year-old student from the province of Teramo, was rescued from the rubble. The woman, who was recovered by mountain rescue cavers, owes her life to a stroke of luck. She was in bed when the four-storey building where she lives crumbled to the ground. Falling reinforced concrete beams stopped just a few centimetres from her body. The mayor of L’Aquila, Massimo Cialente, who visited the devastated student residence in Via XX Settembre, said that there could be five more people under the rubble.

ONNA – Rescue work also continued at Onna, the village that is no more. In the early hours, firefighters pulled two bodies from rubble at Onna, just outside L’Aquila and one of the sites worst hit by the earthquake. This brought the number of victims to 39 in a village of 250 residents. The toll is unlikely to rise further. Two people who were missing yesterday evening turned out to have left the village unbeknown to the rest of the villagers. This morning, firefighters will continue their search with advice from locals to ascertain whether anyone else is trapped under the rubble, although there seems to be little likelihood of this. Once this stage of operations is over, the extent of damage to structures will have to be calculated. Early estimates suggest that practically all the homes in the area are unsafe. At least 60-70% collapsed completely while the rest have suffered severe damage.

NIGHT OF THE SURVIVORS – It was a very cold night in the tents and many survivors opted to spend the night in their cars. Some were transferred to hotels on the coast. But for many of those who lost their homes, shelter had to be found elsewhere, in vehicles or under the only tensile structure, where survivors bedded down with blankets among the benches and tables. A further 250 beds were available in tents erected on the sports ground at Paganica but these were not enough to accommodate all the survivors from a village where half of the residents are homeless. For the first night, priority went to children and the elderly, others having to sleep in cars or on coaches belonging to the regional transport company. During the night, more lorries arrived with civil defence tents, which will increase the capacity of the camps at Paganica and elsewhere. Thanks to ANA, the Alpini troops association, some 1,400 meals were served from 8 pm to midnight. Today, 3,000 more tents are on their way for survivors at L’Aquila and, as the mayor confirmed, “there is always the option of moving to the coast, where 5,000 beds have been requisitioned” in various hotels. Mayor Cialente expressed the hope that “residents can have a better night than the one that is just over. Many people spent the night in their cars and only some were in the tents that have already been erected”. The mayor was among those who slept in their cars.

5,100 RESCUERS – According to civil protection headquarters, 5,100 workers from the national rescue and assistance service are currently involved, in addition to civil protection staff and volunteers from several regions, firefighters, the Red Cross, mountain rescue and the police. The figure is supplemented by more than 1,300 armed services personnel, 300 of whom, including meteorological monitoring staff, are providing support off-site.