Digging hard for survivors in Italy quake
TIME WAS running out Thursday for Italian rescue workers using sniffer dogs and sound detectors in a long-shot hunt for unlikely survivors of a lethal earthquake.
Firefighters joined 5,400 members of the national Civil Protection in the increasingly desperate search for a miracle beneath the rubble of three small towns devastated by the Wednesday quake.
“We will work relentlessly until the last person is found, and make sure no one is trapped,” said Lorenzo Botti, spokesman for the rescue workers.
The would-be rescuers knew the clock was ticking and the odds against their effort rising as another 400 aftershocks rattled the region, complicating their fevered attempts.
One massive temblor sent thick plumes of gray dust shooting skyward Thursday and partially collapsed a building where a CNN camera crew was shooting.
The death toll stood at 250, with at least 365 more hospitalized. Those killed include one Spanish citizen and five Romanians.
Authorities said 184 of the dead were found in the town of Amatrice, while rescue efforts focused on a remote section of nearby Pescara del Tronto.
A Polish immigrant living in Amatrice said her next-door neighbors and their 13-year-old grandson were among the dead.
“I will remember until the end of my life this noise, the evil murmur of moving walls,” Ewa Szwaja told Polish 24-hour news channel TVN24.
“The house in front had collapsed and we stepped from the balcony onto the rubble. The bedroom of our neighbors did not exist anymore.”
The grim number could rise as the search effort continues, since authorities are unable to estimate how many people remain missing. The Romanian government said 11 of its citizens remained unaccounted for.
Rescuers declined to say when their mission would switch from a search for the living to a recovery of the dead. But many clung to a memory of the 2009 earthquake in the town of L’Aquila, where a survivor was found three days later.
“Unfortunately, 90% we pull out are dead,” said volunteer worker Christian Bianchetti. “But some make it. That’s why we are here.”
The hilltop town of Amatrice, along with neighboring Accumoli and Pescara del Tronto, were the hardest hit by the disaster that struck as most people were sleeping at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday.
An estimated 1,200 of those left homeless found refuge in tent cities set up outside the towns, with others in Amatrice spending the night in a local sports facility.
Nello Caffini, carrying items recovered from his sister-in-law’s home in badly-damaged Pescara del Tronto, said he wasn’t sure what the future held.
“Last night we slept in the car,” he said. “Tonight, I don’t know. When things are more tranquil, we will go (home).”
While many local residents couldn’t get into their homes, an alleged thief from Naples tried mightily to find a way inside empty homes in Amatrice.
The 45-year-old suspect was arrested after police spotted him trying to break into one home. Cops arrested the suspect after he tried to flee and then fought with the police, according to the news agency ANSA.