Hope dwindles after fatal avalanche at Italian hotel
Officials fear there will be few survivors as temperatures drop
Rescue workers in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, fearful about plummeting nighttime temperatures, were in a race against time Thursday searching for survivors after an avalanche of snow, ice and mud flattened a resort hotel with up to 30 guests and staff members inside.
Two bodies were recovered in the piles of debris, but hopes of finding people alive were hampered by the agonizingly slow process of getting heavy equipment to the scene.
“The sun is starting to set here and the temperatures are dropping,” said Giovanni Bianchi, a commander with Italy’s civil protection. “The worry is that if there’s a survivor we haven’t found yet, they could risk freezing.”
As the recovery effort dragged on and no sounds were heard from the pile of snow and rubble, Abruzzo Alpine rescue worker Antonio Crocetta told the Italian news agency ANSA that “there are many dead.”
The Hotel Rigopiano in the town of Farindola was ripped from its foundation and almost completely covered by a wall of snow and debris up to 35 feet tall, triggered by a series of earthquakes that shook the region Wednesday.
Heavy snowfall kept ambulances from approaching within 5 miles of the property. Some rescue workers arrived by foot, snowmobile and helicopter, local news media reported.
Workers were able to access parts of the structure and documented hallways crammed with snow, ice and debris, along with the remnants of decorations.
One rescue worker who spoke on local TV station RAI said there was no sign of life in the decimated hotel. Antonio Di Marco, president of the provincial government, said on social media that two people were found alive.
One of them, Giampaolo Parete, a 38-year-old tourist, said he was saved because he left the hotel to retrieve something from his car parked outside. His wife and two children were inside the building, he said.
Premier Paolo Gentiloni urged authorities to redouble rescue efforts as he sought to deflect criticism. He said Thursday that the priority is to reach all isolated towns and hamlets buried under snowfall for days before being jolted by the powerful quakes Wednesday.
Residents have been complaining of being left without electricity because of what Gentiloni called a “record snowfall.” Criticism has also come in about the response time to reach the buried hotel.
“We have been abandoned by everyone!” said one resident from the province of Teramo, Daiana Nguyen, on Sky TG24.
Nguyen said people have been stuck in their homes for days.
“Help, we’re dying of cold,” one couple wrote rescuers, according to the ANSA news agency. Another man, identified by news reports as Fabio Salzetta, sent a text message saying he escaped with a maintenance worker, but that others were trapped inside.
Corriere della Sera quoted the message as saying: “Some walls were knocked down.” And: “I’m outside with a maintenance worker but you can’t see anything of the hotel, there’s only a wall of snow in front of me.”
Wednesday’s earthquakes did not directly impact Farindola, but the temblors apparently unsettled snow on the slopes of the majestic Gran Sasso, a 9,554-foottall peak that dominates the region.
Because of its proximity to Rome, Italy’s capital and largest city, the area around the Gran Sasso is popular with tourists on day trips or overnight excursions.
The weather in the area had been particularly good for skiing in recent days — cold and crisp with heavy snowfall. Before the avalanche, staff members at the four-star hotel tweeted: “A dream Tuesday at Rigopiano … the snow is giving us a spectacular panorama.”