Birds at Delimara
Quake death toll rises to 250 as Amatrice mayor says town is decimated
The death toll from the earthquake in central Italy has risen to 250, authorities said, more than 24 hours after it struck destroying towns and villages in Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche.
The magnitude 6.2 quake struck at 3.36am on Wednesday and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome, where residents woke to a long swaying followed by aftershocks.
Dozens of people were pulled out alive by rescue teams and volunteers that poured in from around Italy.
In the evening, about 17 hours after the quake struck, firefighters pulled a 10-year-old girl alive from the rubble in Pescara del Tronto.
“You can hear something under here. Quiet, quiet,” one rescue worker said, before soon urging her on: “Come on, Giulia, come on, Giulia.”
Cheers broke out when she was pulled out.
“Unfortunately, 90% we pull out are dead, but some make it, that’s why we are here,” said Christian Bianchetti, a volunteer from Rieti who was working in devastated Amatrice where flood lights were set up so the rescue could continue through the night.
Premier Matteo Renzi visited the zone on Wednesday, greeted rescue teams and survivors, and pledged that “No family, no city, no hamlet will be left behind.” Italy’s civil protection agency reported the death toll had risen to 250; at least 368 others were injured.
An estimated one in 10 residents of the town of Amatrice have died, its mayor says. “Our heart is broken, but it will rise again.”
The mayor of Amatrice said: “The town isn’t here anymore.”
One area of focus is still the Hotel Roma in Amatrice, the Associated Press reports.
Amatrice’s mayor had initially said 70 guests were in the collapsed hotel ahead of this weekend’s festival, but rescue workers later halved that estimate after the owner said most people had managed to escape.
Fire service spokesman Luca Cari said one body had been pulled out of the hotel rubble just before dawn but the search was continuing there and elsewhere, even as 460 aftershocks rattled the area.
“We’re still in a phase that allows us to hope we’ll find people alive,” he said, noting that in the 2009 earthquake in nearby L’Aquila a survivor was pulled out after 72 hours. Up to 200 people are feared dead in the small town of Amatrice alone following Wednesday’s earthquake, its mayor has said.
Sergio Pirozzi told state broadcaster RAI that at least 190 are already confirmed dead in the town, with around 40 more still missing.
Old listings for Amatrice put the town’s population at 1,046, though CNN’s estimate of 2,000 seems closer to the truth. That would mean approximately one in 10 residents were killed in the quake.
Pirozzi said there were sure to be many of his friends among the dead, given the areas of the town which suffered the most damage.
While people continue to be pulled from the rubble in other parts of the region today, there has been no such luck in Amatrice. “Is there any more news on people who could still pull through? Since last night, no,” he said.
“So in fact, the town is no more.”
‘We are still finding survivors’
Flavio Ronzi, the secretary-general of the Italian Red Cross, says there is still hope to find people alive.
“We are still finding some survivors because there is still some time, we can still find someone alive but of course hour by hour it’s going to be more difficult and with less possibilities,” he told the BBC. Right now, the focus continues to be on finding survivors in the rubble, and mourning those who have died.
Hope has not yet been completely lost that more will be pulled alive from the debris. Locals hark back to the huge earthquake that hit L’Aquila in 2009 not so far away from the current affected region. There, some survived up to 72 hours under the wreckage of homes before they were freed.
But among the wider Italian public, questions are already being asked about whether more could have been done to avert the worst impacts of Wednesday’s 6.2-magnitude quake.
“The Apennine mountains in central Italy have the highest seismic hazard in Western Europe and earthquakes of this magnitude are common,” noted Richard Walters, a lecturer in Earth sciences at Durham University in the UK.
Modern buildings in the region are required by law to be built to high anti-seismic standards, given the number of earthquakes the area suffers.
Yet in Amatrice, while the local hospital was rendered “unusable” by the quake, the historic 16th-century clock tower stood as if untouched.
Serious concerns are also being raised over the amount of specialised equipment available to rescuers.
And despite a massive rescue and relief effort – with army, Alpine crews, carabineri, firefighters, Red Cross crews and volunteers, it wasn’t enough: A few miles 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 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!”
As to the effort to rebuild, the mayor of Accumoli, Stefano Petrucci, said he feared for the future of the town.
“I hope they don’t forget us,” he told Sky TG24.
Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, will convene his Cabinet to decide measures to help the affected communities.
He said late on Wednesday: “Today is a day for tears, tomorrow we can talk of reconstruction.”
The public has also rallied behind the victims by attempting to raise money in the most Italian way possible – cooking and eating pasta.
An initiative was launched just hours after the extent of the damage from the earthquake became clearly, whereby participating restaurants would donate €2 to the crisis response for every “spaghetti all’Amatriciana” sold.
The dish is famous nationwide, and originates from Amatrice, one of the towns worst hit by Wednesday’s quake. It is a sauce consisting of cured pork cheek (guanciale), pecorino cheese and tomatoes.
The town was supposed to be celebrating the dish this weekend at its 50th annual “sagra”, or local food festival.
The initiative to donate to the cause, whereby €1 each is given by the customer and by the restaurant, has reportedly been taken up all over the country with a poster promoting it, with a pun on the “ama” of “Amatriciana”. Ama is the Italian for “loves”.
The initiative has not just been limited to pasta. One pizzeria has created the “Amatriciana pizza”, presumably based on similar ingredients, and says it will donate 70% of proceeds to the earthquake victims.
People across Italy have rallied round the victims of the earthquake in a number of ways in the past 24 hours.
Possibly most immediately practical has been a huge drive to give blood, with queues reported at donation centres both near and far.