Rescuers pull out avalanche survivors
FARINDOLA, ITALY • With cheers of joy, rescue crews pulled survivors from the debris of an avalanche-crushed hotel in central Italy on Friday, boosting spirits two days after the massive snow slide buried some 30 people at the resort. At least two children were among the 10 people found alive.
The news sent relatives of the missing rushing from the rescue operations centre in the mountains to the hospital on the coast in hopes that their loved ones were among the lucky few to be found.
And it buoyed rescue workers who had already located four bodies from the avalanche that slammed Wednesday into the luxury Hotel Rigopiano, 180 kilometres northeast of Rome, and dumped up to 5 metres of snow on top of the resort.
“Today is a day of hope. There’s a miracle under way,” said Ilario Lacchetta, mayor of the tiny town of Farindola, where the hotel is located.
First word of the discovery came at around 11 a.m. Video released by rescuers showed a boy wearing blue snow pants and a matching ski shirt emerging through a snow hole. Emergency crews mussed his hair in celebration.
“Bravo! Bravo!” they cheered.
Next came a woman with a long ponytail wearing red snow pants, appearing fully alert. Both were helped to a stretcher for the helicopter ride out.
About 30 people were trapped inside the hotel in the Gran Sasso mountain range when the avalanche struck after days of winter storms that dumped up to three metres of snow in some places.
Two people initially survived the devastation and called for help. One of them, Giampiero Parete, had called his boss and begged him to mobilize rescue crews because his wife and two children were trapped inside.
Parete’s Romanian-born wife, Adriana Vranceanu, 43, and 8-year-old son Gianfilippo, were reunited later Friday with their father at the hospital in the nearby city of Pescara.
Rescue workers were still searching for their daughter, 6-year-old Ludovica, after her mother indicated she was alive under the debris.
The number of survivors found and extracted evolved over the course of the day.
“We found five people alive. We’re pulling them out. Send us a helicopter!” a rescuer was heard saying over a firefighters’ radio as reporters made their way on foot to the site of the disaster.
Late Friday, firefighter spokesman Luca Cari said a total of 10 survivors, including two children, had been located but only a few had been extracted.