‘Like Dante’s Inferno’
DEATH TOLL RISING
Huge earthquake reduces three Italian towns to rubble.
Rescue crews using bulldozers and their bare hands raced to dig out survivors from a strong earthquake that reduced three central Italian towns to rubble Wednesday. The death toll stood at 120, but the number of dead and missing was uncertain given the huge number of vacationers in the area for summer’s final days.
Residents wakened before dawn by the temblor emerged from their crumbled homes to find what they described as apocalyptic scenes “like Dante’s Inferno,” with entire blocks of buildings turned into piles of sand and rock, thick dust choking the air and a putrid smell of gas.
“The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of the hardest-hit town, Amatrice. “I believe the toll will rise.”
The magnitude 6 quake struck at 3:36 a.m. and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome, where residents woke to a long swaying followed by aftershocks. The temblor shook the Lazio region and Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast, a highly seismic area that has witnessed major quakes in the past.
Dozens of people were pulled out alive by rescue teams and volunteers that poured in from around Italy.
“She’s alive!” two women cheered as they ran up the street in Pescara del Tronto, one of the three hardest hit hamlets, after an 8-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble after nightfall.
And there were wails when bodies emerged.
“Unfortunately, 90 per cent we pull out are dead, but some make it, that’s why we are here,” said volunteer Christian Bianchetti.
Premier Matteo Renzi visited the zone Wednesday, greeted rescue teams and survivors, and said the toll stood at 120 dead and was likely to rise. At least 368 others were injured. He promised the quake-prone area that “No family, no city, no hamlet will be left behind.”
Worst affected were the tiny towns of Amatrice and Accumoli near Rieti, some 100 kilometres northeast of Rome, and Pescara del Tronto, some 25 kilometres further east. Italy’s civil protection agency set up tent cities around each hamlet to
The medieval centre of Amatrice was devastated, with the hardest-hit half of the city cut off by rescue crews digging by hand to get to trapped residents.
The birthplace of the famed spaghetti all’ amatriciana bacon and tomato sauce, the city was full for this weekend’s planned festival honouring its native dish. Some 70 guests filled its top Hotel Roma, famed for its amatriciana, and a rescue worker said at least five bodies were pulled from the hotel’s rubble. The fate of the dozens of other guests wasn’t immediately known.
Amatrice is made up of 69 hamlets that teams from around Italy were working to reach with sniffer dogs, earthmovers and other heavy equipment to reach residents. In the city centre, rocks and metal tumbled onto the streets and dazed residents huddled in piazzas as more than 200 aftershocks jolted the region throughout the day, some as strong as magnitude 5.1.
“The whole ceiling fell but did not hit me,” marveled resident Maria Gianni. “I just managed to put a pillow on my head and I wasn’t hit, luckily, just slightly injured my leg.”
Another woman, sitting in front of her destroyed home with a blanket over her shoulders, said she didn’t know what had become of her loved ones.
“It was one of the most beautiful towns of Italy and now there’s nothing left,” she said, too distraught to give her name. “I don’t know what we’ll do.”
Despite a massive rescue and relief effort — with army, Alpine crews, carabineri, firefighters, Red Cross crews and volunteers, it wasn’t enough: A few kilometres north of Amatrice, in Illica, residents complained that rescue workers were slow to arrive and that loved ones were trapped.
“We are waiting for the military,” said resident Alessandra Cappellanti. “There is a base in Ascoli, one in Rieti, and in L’Aquila. And we have not seen a single soldier. We pay! It’s disgusting!”
Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting Illica, said workers eventually arrived after an hour or so. “We came out to the piazza, and it looked like Dante’s Inferno,” he said. “People crying for help, help.”