NATION DAZED AND DESPERATE
‘People are stuck underneath the rubble. Houses are no longer there,’ one mayor says as rescue workers dig into wreckage
A powerful earthquake toppled homes, churches and shops in a wide swath of medieval towns in central Italy on Wednesday, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds of others, according to Italy's civil protection agency.
Dozens more were missing or feared dead from the magnitude-6.2 earthquake and a series of aftershocks that jolted Umbria, Lazio and Le Marche, three regions 80 to 100 miles northeast of Rome.
Rescue teams using bulldozers, and aided by townspeople with their bare hands, pored through the piles of rock, metal and wood late Wednesday, looking for possible survivors. Police near the town of Ascoli listened to cries for help from under the rubble but lacked the heavy equipment to move the rocks, according the RAI radio.
“We need chain saws, shears to cut iron bars and jacks to remove beams. Everything, we need everything,” civil protection worker Andrea Gentili told the Associated Press.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi spoke Wednesday evening in the provincial capital of Rieti after flying over Le Marche region and visiting first responders and survivors in the town of Amatrice, one of the hardest hit.
The AP reported the death toll at 159. The Italian news agency ANSA reported at least 35 dead in Amatrice, 11 in Accumoli, near Rieti, and 17 in the province of Ascoli Piceno, which includes Pescara del Tronto. Renzi reported 35 dead in Le Marche.
Fabrizio Curcio, director of Italy’s civil protection agency, activated national emergency procedures. He said the quake
The first quake struck around 3:30 a.m., collapsing walls and ceilings of homes and trapping people as they slept.
was on par with one in L’Aquilla in 2009 that left more than 300 people dead.
Much of the city center of Amatrice was covered with mounds of debris after structures tumbled in the initial quake and aftershocks. Residents of the popular tourist destination of about 3,000 people gathered in the piazzas, dazed by the quake and fearful of more temblors.
“The whole ceiling fell but did not hit me,” said resident Maria Gianni, according to the AP. “I just managed to put a pillow on my head, and I wasn’t hit, luckily, just slightly injured my leg.”
The Vatican sent a six-man team from the Vatican City fire squad to Amatrice. A statement said the decision was made as a “sign of the pope’s concrete proximity to the people affected by the quake.”
Mayor Sergio Pirozzi of Amatrice told the AP that rescue teams were trying to reach all 69 hamlets around his town. “Half of the town doesn’t exist anymore,” he told RAI-TV. “People are stuck underneath the rubble. Houses are no longer there.”
The first quake struck around 3:30 a.m., collapsing walls and ceilings of homes and trapping people as they slept.
It was followed by at least 11 temblors in what the seismological center described as a “high aftershock rate.”
Pirozzi said the quake knocked out power to the community, hampering communication with emergency responders.
The remote town was virtually cut off after a bridge connecting it to the rest of the region was damaged.
The hospital was also badly hit, forcing the wounded and stretcher-bearers to gather in front of the building. Ambulances then transferred patients to other towns.
In Accumoli, Mayor Stefano Petrucci said at least 2,500 people were displaced, including 2,000 summer season tourists. “We will try to assist them all, but you’d better leave the country,” he told them, according to ANSA.