Italian rescuers find hope among the rubble
PESCARA DEL TRONTO, Italy — The rescuers’ hopes were dashed when they touched the small, cold leg protruding from a mountain of debris in this quake-ruined village. Clearly, the little girl was dead.
But not all hope was lost. As they dug, the rescue crew could see that entwined in the 8-yearold child’s arms was her 4-year-old sister, Giorgia. And she was still breathing.
“They were lying embraced under the rubble,” one of the rescuers recounted. “We heard a moan and realized she was alive.”
Many more were not so lucky. As of yesterday, the death toll stood at 250, with hundreds more hurt, from the earthquake that had ravaged a string of formerly postcard-perfect Italian mountain villages early Wednesday.
For the 5,000-strong rescue force that converged from across Italy and Europe, the digging out had by then become a harvest of death, with corpses unearthed at every turn. Onlookers sobbed in recognition as bodies were carefully lifted from the crumbled wreckage.
As hundreds of aftershocks rumbled through the quake zone, about 85 miles northeast of Rome, rescue teams dodged falling debris and bleary-eyed survivors settled in for a second night in the open air. More than 1,200 people were sheltering in tents, cars and camping trailers, afraid to venture indoors.
The earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2, reduced hundreds of structures — some of them historic homes and churches that had stood for centuries — to monumental heaps of rubble and dust.
“We want to believe there are still people alive under there,” said firefighter Danilo Dionisi, whose team in the village of Pescara del Tronto unearthed the entwined Rinaldi sisters Wednesday night after their frantic parents showed where to dig for them.
In far-flung corners of Italy, people paid tribute to quake victims. Flags flew at half-staff, and the culture ministry said all proceeds from public museums on Sunday would be donated to restoration efforts.
As clouds of cloying white dust kicked up by the temblor began to settle, the first in a round of expected finger-pointing began. Prosecutors in Rieti province yesterday launched an investigation of “culpable disaster” in earthquake preparations, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported.