Aftershocks in Italy rattle rescue efforts
Nearly 1,000 jolts hit devastated region amid ongoing survivor search
AMATRICE, ITALY The mayor of this medieval mountain town, which suffered the largest number of casualties from a devastating earthquake in central Italy, said Friday two heavily damaged bridges have been closed, threatening to cut off the town from the outside world.
Mayor Sergio Pirozzi said he was working with authorities to find alternative routes to bypass the damaged bridges.
“We hope to God it works, because otherwise, with the damaged stretch of road, we are without any connection” to the main roads, he said.
Even before the bridges were shut down Friday, roads have been choked with heavy traffic as emergency vehicles bring scores of rescue crews to town and dump trucks carry tons of concrete, rocks and metal back out the single- lane roads.
Officials said Friday the death toll from Wednesday’s earthquake that rocked central Italy increased to 267, with 387 people being treated at hospitals.
Three British citizens, including a
14- year- old boy, were among those killed in Amatrice, their families said, according to The Guardian.
Rescue teams continued to look for possible survivors despite hundreds of aftershocks that hampered first responders digging around already damaged buildings in the hardest- hit areas.
Rescue teams are wary that more crumbled buildings might come down amid nearly 1,000 aftershocks that have jolted the region.
The biggest one struck at 6: 28 a. m. local time with a magnitude of 4.7, according to the U. S. Geological Survey.
It had been more than 24 hours since anyone was pulled alive from the rubble. However, Immacolata Postiglione, chief civil protection agency, insisted the rescue effort continue at full speed and had not switched to a recovery mission.
“The units that are doing the searches and rescues, including with dogs looking for other people trapped in the rubble, are absolutely fully active,” she said early Friday, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
Rescue workers noted that one person was pulled out alive from L’Aquila’s 2009 quake after 72 hours.
Fireman and volunteer rescue worker Claudio Catanese, 32, said the work is hard and nonstop.
“You don’t sleep and yourmuscles hurt,” Catanese said. “But when you save someone’s life, it fills you with new energy. There’s a great satisfaction in that.”
Italy has declared a state of emergency, and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has pledged $ 56 million in reconstruction funds.
Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice, said his town of 3,000 people would have to start from scratch.
“Amatrice has to be razed to the ground completely,” he said Friday, according to ANSA.
He said the only structure still standing completely is the Romanesque church of St. Francis— everything else is gone.
“We would like to rebuild in the same place, perhaps with the same form and with the same aesthetic,” he said.
Amatrice is perhaps best known as the home of spaghetti all’amatriciana, a hearty dish of pasta.
British celebrity chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver is joining an effort to raise money for Italian earthquake victims by donating a portion of proceeds from every plate of Pasta Amatriciana, the dish specific to the region, to the relief effort, according to the Associated Press.