287 dead in quake in central Italy (40,000 to 50,000 Left Homeless)

[Elano]

More than 150 people have been killed and 1,500 made homeless by a massive earthquake in central Italy, hospital sources have said.

The village of Onna, close to L'Aquila, was "wiped off the map" with no houses left standing, according to one emergency official.

In the fields outside, row after row of coffins were lined up and officials said at least 50 of the 400 inhabitants are dead.

The tremor struck at just after 3.30am local time and measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled a visit to Moscow and immediately flew to the scene, calling the area a "disaster zone".

The village of Onna, close to L'Aquila, was "wiped off the map" with no houses left standing, according to one emergency official.

In the fields outside, row after row of coffins were lined up and officials said at least 50 of the 400 inhabitants are dead.

The tremor struck at just after 3.30am local time and measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled a visit to Moscow and immediately flew to the scene, calling the area a "disaster zone".

"The camp should be ready be tonight," he said. "The fundamental thing I want to say is that nobody will be left alone."

Guido Bertolaso, head of the Italian Civil Defence, said: "Many, many buildings have collapsed and there are people trapped inside.

"Emergency services are travelling to the scene and we are working on rescuing people who are trapped.

"Thousands of people have been left homeless and we are providing emergency shelters such as tents for them."

He added: "This is the worst disaster to have hit Italy since the start of the millennium and I would appeal to people not to go to the area."

Emergency services were also focusing their attention on a university hall of residence in L'Aquila which had partially collapsed with students inside.

The area around L'Aquila has been the scene of intense earthquake activity since October.

There was another smaller tremor around midnight which measured 4.6 on the Richter scale.

L'Aquila is a picturesque medieval town and has been hit by severe tremors twice before, in 1461 and 1703. Both times the city was virtually destroyed.

An Italian scientist claims he predicted a major quake near the town weeks ago but was reported to authorities for spreading panic.

As rescue efforts continued tragic stories emerged, including one involving a two-year-old girl who was dug out of the ruins of her home at San Gregorio. Her mother's dead body was wrapped around her as a shield.

One firefighter said: "It was tragic to see. The girl has been injured and has been taken to hospital by helicopter but her mother sadly died - she shielded her from the debris."

In another case, a 20-year-old student was dug from the collapsed ruins of the university hall of residence after calling his sister who directed emergency services to where he was.

Officials said that, in total, 26 council districts had been hit by the earthquake in a radius of around 35 miles from L'Aquila.

There was also minor damage reported as far afield as Rome and Naples.

Pope Benedict XVI said he was praying for the victims and officials launched urgent appeals for blood supplies.

Civil protection officials said at least 50,000 people had been left homeless as a result of the quake.

They stressed many would be temporarily homeless while engineers carry out structural checks on damaged buildings.


R.I.P. to all the dead people 

[Elano]

[Elano]

[Elano]

L'AQUILA, Italy – A strong tremor shook quake-hit areas of central Italy on Tuesday and sent rescuers and residents fleeing from damaged buildings in the ravaged medieval city of L'Aquila. Chunks of concrete dropped from already crumbling buildings and the shock was felt as far away as Rome, 70 miles to the southwest. The ANSA news agency said at least one person was killed near L'Aquila.

Meanwhile, Italian news agencies reported a woman was pulled alive from the rubble after 42 hours. The ANSA and Apcom news agencies said the young woman was conscious and speaking to firefighters throughout the rescue operation Tuesday night at a building in L'Aquila's historic center.

The reports said her leg had been trapped under a big piece of masonry but she was sheltered in a space created by fallen concrete pillars.

The official toll from the quake stood at 207 dead, 15 missing and some 1,000 injured. However, ANSA reported it had tallied 228 dead at a hangar being used as a morgue.

ANSA said the aftershock caused further damage to the Chiesa delle Anime Sante, one of the many historic buildings in this city that partially collapsed in the quake.

While the U.S. Geological Survey said Tuesday's aftershock measured 5.6, Italian seismologists using the Richter scale put it at 5.3. The epicenter was near L'Aquila.

The strong temblor struck at 7:47 p.m., terrifying a young couple who were walking in central L'Aquila to their car after bringing food and clothing to friends and relatives in one of the city's tent camps.

"I want to go home, I want to go home," screamed a woman, whose boyfriend identified her only as Patrizia after chunks of facade rained down on them from a building that had been badly cracked in the larger quake.

Her hands trembled as rescue workers gave her a cup of water. The young woman said she was too shaken to talk.

Her boyfriend, Agostino Paride, 33, an engineer, said they had driven to L'Aquila from the town of Civitella Rovedo, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) away.

[OchoCinco]

damn, i swear i seen a show a while ago about trackin where earthquakes happend and shit and i  swear they predicted a big one was going to happen in that area. Either way tho that sad shit, thats a lot of damage.

[the ghost]

Thats really sad.  Those old buildings that make parts of Italy so dope are also very dangerous.  I was in that area about 10 years ago and the people were so nice there.  I really feel bad for them now.

[Elano]

Thats really sad.  Those old buildings that make parts of Italy so dope are also very dangerous.  I was in that area about 10 years ago and the people were so nice there.  I really feel bad for them now.

most of the people are old or families with young childrens 

[Elano]

IT'S  A FUCKIN DISASTER

Strong aftershocks Tuesday sent a fresh wave of fear across earthquake-shattered central Italy, and rescue crews pulled a young woman alive from a collapsed building about 42 hours after the main quake struck the mountainous region. Eleonora Calesini, a 20-year-old student, was found alive in the ruins of the five-story building in central L'Aquila, said her grandfather, Renato Calesini, in the seaside town of Mondaini.

"She's safe!" he told The Associated Press, adding that her father had gone to devastated city in the snowcapped Apennine mountains to try to locate the student, who wears a hearing aid. She reportedly had an arm injury but was in good condition otherwise.

The death toll from Italy's worst earthquake in three decades climbed to 235, with 15 still missing, civil protection officials said. The dead included four students trapped in the rubble of a dormitory of the University of L'Aquila, the ANSA news agency reported.

Rescue crews gave up gingerly removing debris by hand and brought in huge pincers that pulled off parts of the dorm roof, balconies and walls, showering debris down.

"Unless there is a miracle, I've been told (by rescuers) that they probably are dead," university rector Ferdinando Di Orio said.

A strong aftershock at 7:47 p.m. rained debris on screaming residents and rescue crews, who ran from the site.

"I want to go home! I want to go home!" screamed a woman identified only as Patrizia after chunks of facade rained down on them from a badly cracked building.

Her hands trembled as rescue workers gave her a cup of water. Her boyfriend, Agostino Paride, 33, an engineer, said they had driven to L'Aquila from Civitella Rovedo, some 45 miles away, to bring food and clothes to relatives in a tent camp.

To shelter the homeless against another chilly night in the mountains, some 20 tent cities sprouted in open spaces around L'Aquila and surrounding towns. Field kitchens, medical supplies and clowns with bubbles — to entertain traumatized children — were brought in.

Officials estimated Monday that 50,000 people had been left homeless by the quake. By Tuesday evening, that number was lowered to between 17,000 and 25,000, because many moved in with friends or relatives.

"I don't know how I'll make it," a dazed Pierina Diletti said as she stood in slippers and her nightgown outside her tent.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who visited one of the encampments, said an estimated 14,500 people were being sheltered in the blue tents.

Officials said some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed in the 26 cities, towns and villages around L'Aquila, a picturesque city of 70,000. Teams planned to begin surveying those buildings still standing on Wednesday to see if residents could move back in.

"The assessment will concern every room, every slit, every crack," Berlusconi told a news conference, adding that assessments of the region's prized cultural treasures — churches, monuments and other historical sites — would begin soon.

Berlusconi surveyed the devastated region by helicopter and said rescue efforts would continue for two more days — "until it is certain that there is no one else alive." At least 100 of about 1,000 injured people were in serious condition, he said.

Experts say the vast majority of buildings in the most vulnerable regions of earthquake-prone Italy don't meet modern seismic safety standards.

Nearly half of Italy is labeled "dangerous" in terms of seismic activity, according to a 2008 report by Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, and other Italian geologists and civil protection experts. But only 14 percent of buildings in that vulnerable swath were built to seismic-safety standards, the report said.

In the seaside town of Pescara, 16 families were sheltered at the Hotel Ambra, which offered free rooms to quake victims. "They are a little traumatized," hotel business manager Vincenzo Traversa said. "It is not a beautiful experience."

So far, 6,500 hotel beds across the Abruzzo region were made available and 4,000 filled by Tuesday afternoon, said Emilio Schirato, president of Abruzzo's hotel association. Schirato said the rooms were made available "spontaneously" by hotel owners as a gesture of solidarity.

But some people pretending to have lost their homes had sought to get free hotel rooms, Schirato said. Carabinieri police were trying to verify that people being housed were in fact deserving, he said.

In L'Aquila and surrounding towns, many took shelter in their cars.

"It was a bad night," said Francesco Marchi, 18, who slept in his car with his brother in a piazza far from buildings, fearing falling debris from aftershocks. "It was really cold, but we had sleeping bags."

Two buildings in the suburb of Pettino collapsed following one aftershock, ANSA reported, citing fire officials. No one was believed to be inside either building.

The ground shook in the nearly leveled town of Onna, about six miles away, but caused no panic. Onna residents walked around dazed, clutching whatever heirlooms they had managed to grab before their homes collapsed.

"We lost 15 members of our family. Babies and children died," 70-year-old retiree Virgilio Colajanni said as he choked back tears. Onna had about 300 residents and lost 40 to the quake.

Civil protection Maj. Cristina DiTommaso, who was helping coordinate the rescue in Onna, said search efforts were complicated by an unknown number of undocumented immigrants living there. Most of Italy's illegal immigrants are from Romania, the former Yugoslavia or northern Africa, and many work in the largely agricultural area as farm or manual laborers.

While the elderly, children and pregnant women were given priority at tent camps, others arranged to stay with relatives or in second homes out of the quake zone.

Ines D'Alessandro, 98, moved to her sister's home in nearby Sulmona after surviving her second devastating quake. Her first — a 1915 temblor that killed 30,000 people — occurred when she was just 4, ANSA reported.

"It is hard. I cry my heart out for all of these people struck by this tragedy, but one needs to have courage and I try to give it to others. I have fought all of my life," D'Alessandro told ANSA.

Six months pregnant, Sandra Padil spent the night in a tent without any covers as the temperatures dipped to 43 degrees.

"We are calmer out in the open," said Padil, a 32-year-old Peruvian who has been living in L'Aquila since 1996. "We didn't have blankets and it was cold, but at least this morning they gave us breakfast. Let's hope this ends quickly."

The main quake — which struck just after 3:30 a.m. Monday — registered magnitude 6.3, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Italy's National Institute of Geophysics, using the Richter scale, put it at 5.8.

It was Italy's deadliest quake since Nov. 23, 1980, when a 6.9-magnitude quake hit southern regions, leveling villages and killing about 3,000.

[Elano]

[the ghost]

Do you live near there Krasnoe?

[Elano]

Do you live near there Krasnoe?

no,i live on the east coast (near rimini).
but i've heard the earthquake too...

[Elano]

NATIONAL MOURNING today in Italy

[Rick McCrank]

sucks

let's hope the big California earthquake isn't for 100 years