'IT'S LIKE DANTE'S INFERNO'
Italy’s devastating quake
The death toll from the predawn earthquake that rocked central Italy Wednesday was at least 247 and rising after the powerful, 6.2magnitude temblor reduced at least three towns to rubble and left thousands homeless.
The quake, which struck at 3:36 a.m. local time, caused homes to collapse on sleeping residents after erupting from a depth of about 5.5 miles near the town of Norcia in the region of Umbria.
The shallow depth contributed to the power of the quake, which carved a wide swath of devastation and was felt as far away as Rome to the southwest and the Adriatic coast to the east, officials said.
“We came out to the piazza and it looked like ‘Dante’s Inferno,’ ” said Agostino Severo, a Rome resident visiting the tiny village of Illica near hard-hit Accumoli, about 80 miles northeast of Rome.
Italian officials said early Thursday that there were 247 confirmed deaths, a number that could climb significantly. Hundreds were reported injured.
“The town isn’t here anymore,” said Sergio Pirozzi, the mayor of Amatrice, where at least 35 people perished. “What can I tell you? It’s a tragedy.”
Also hard hit was Arquata del Tronto, where 18-month-old Marisol Piermarini was killed in her crib when the house where her parents were vacationing collapsed, the Daily Mail reported.
The baby’s grandfather, Massimo Piermarini, told the Italian news agency Ansa that he tried to save his family.
“They did not want me to go in because it was all in danger, but I said that I did not care at all, I had to go looking for them, but unfortunately for the girl, there was nothing to do,” he said.
In Pescara Del Tronto, rescuers pulled a conscious 10-year-old girl from the rubble.
“She’s alive!” two women yelled as they ran up the street while the girl was taken to a hospital.
In Accumoli, a family of four, including boys ages 8 months and 9 years, were killed after their home was struck by the recently restored bell tower of the town church.
God “took them all at once!” their grandmother wailed.
In a poignant moment during rescue efforts, a ranger in Capodacqua, in the Marche province of Ascoli Piceno, tried to keep a trapped 80-year-old woman calm as she begged to get to a toilet.
“Listen, I know it’s not nice to say, but if you need to pee, you just do it,” he told her. “Now I move away a little bit and you pee, please.”
The devastated region is just north of L’Aquila, the city where a 6.3-magnitude quake killed more than 300 people and injured more than 1,000 in April 2009.