Quake turns torch on building codes
Rescuers refused to say when their work would shift from saving lives to recovering bodies, noting one person was pulled alive from the rubble 72 hours after the 2009 quake in nearby L’Aquila.
‘‘We will work relentlessly until the last person is found, and make sure no-one is trapped,’’ said Lorenzo Botti, a rescue team spokesman.
Many residents have been left homeless by the destruction, their homes and apartments declared uninhabitable. Some survivors, escorted by firefighters, were allowed to re-enter their homes briefly yesterday to get essential necessities for what will surely be an extended absence.
‘‘Last night we slept in the car. Tonight, I don’t know,’’ said Nello Caffini as he carried his sister-in- law’s belongings on his head after being allowed to go quickly into her home in Pescara del Tronto.
Charitable assistance began pouring into the earthquake zone in traffic-clogging droves yesterday. Church groups from a variety of Christian denominations, along with farmers offering donated peaches, pumpkins and plums, sent vans along the one-way road into Amatrice, which was already packed with emergency vehicles and trucks carrying sniffer dogs.
Renzi authorised a preliminary 50 million (NZ$77m) in emergency funding, and the government cancelled taxes for residents, proforma measures that are just the start of what will be a long and costly rebuilding campaign.
He also announced a new initiative, ‘‘Italian Homes’’, to answer years of criticism over shoddy construction across the country, which has the highest seismic hazard in Western Europe.
Medieval-era towns do not have to conform to the country’s antiseismic building codes. Making matters worse, those codes often aren’t applied even when new buildings are built.
Armando Zambrano, the head of Italy’s National Council of Engineers, said the technology existed to reinforce old buildings and prevent high death tolls when quakes struck. While he estimated it would cost up to 93 billion to reinforce all historic structures, he said targeted efforts in the riskiest areas could be done for less.
Some experts estimate 70 per cent of Italy’s buildings aren’t built to anti-seismic standards, though not all are in high-risk areas.
Funding shortfalls and bureaucracy are obstacles to making the country’s buildings quakeresistant. A new law tries to encourage homeowners to make their homes earthquake-proof by reimbursing 65 per cent of the cost over 10 years, but it isn’t enough to push Italians, who are facing years of economic stagnation, to put up the cash to make the upgrades.
Compounding the problem, many of the oldest and most vulnerable structures are in remote villages inhabited mostly by retired Italians getting by on pensions with no cash to spare. In the cities, upgrades are stifled by the condominium-style rules of buildings requiring the agreement of multiple owners for such investments.