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**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 01:40 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

BBC NEWS | Europe | Several killed in Italian quake

Several killed in Italian quake

At least 16 people have been killed in a powerful earthquake that struck central Italy, Italian officials say.

The magnitude-6.3 earthquake hit at 0332 (0132 GMT) near the city of L'Aquila, about 95km (60 miles) north-east of the capital, Rome.

Five children were said to be among the dead.

The death toll was rising.

A civil protection official told the BBC that 3,000 to 10,000 buildings may have been damaged by the earthquake in L'Aquila, a Medieval city.

Agostino Miozzo said that thousands could have been made homeless. He described widespread panic, but said rescue workers were on the scene.

The mayor of L'Aquila, Massimo Cialente, said some 100,000 people had left their homes.

Television footage of L'Aquila showed a number of collapsed buildings.

Officials said they feared the death toll would rise as workers made their way through the rubble.

Aftershocks
L'Aquila, a medieval town of about 70,000 inhabitants with a number of old buildings, is the capital of the mountainous Abruzzo region.

The earthquake was also felt in Rome, where the BBC correspondent said he was woken up by the shaking.

Two smaller earthquakes struck the same region of Italy on Sunday but caused no damage.

Powerful earthquakes are relatively rare in Italy. In 2002, an earthquake in the southern Italian town of San Giuliano di Puglia killed more than 20 people.

In 1997, 13 people died when a strong earthquake struck Italy's central region.
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<cite cite="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7984867.stm">BBC NEWS | Europe | Several killed in Italian quake</cite>

**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 01:57 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Reuters AlertNet - At least 16 dead, many injured in Italy quake

At least 16 dead, many injured in Italy quake

06 Apr 2009 06:30:43 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds children dead, official says thousands left homeless)
By Deepa Babington
L'AQUILA, Italy, April 6 (Reuters) -

A powerful earthquake struck a huge swathe of central Italy as residents slept on Monday morning, killing at least 16 people when houses, churches and other buildings collapsed, officials said.

The dead were mainly in L'Aquila, a 13th century mountain city about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome that has a population of 68,000, and surrounding villages.

Rubble was strewn throughout the city and nearby towns, blocking roads and hampering rescue teams and residents who tried to lift debris with their bare hands in a search for survivors from the quake, which had a magnitude of at least 5.8.

"Thousands of people (could be left) homeless and thousands of buildings collapsed or damaged," said Agostino Miozzo, an official at the Civil Protection Department.

A resident in l'Aquila standing by an apartment block that had been reduced to the height of an adult said: "This building was four storeys high." Some cars were buried by the rubble.

It was the worst earthquake in terms of deaths to hit Italy since 2002, when 30 children were killed in a school collapse in the south.

But officials said the death toll from this earthquake could be worse because more buildings were damaged.

Four children were reported killed in one building in l'Aquila, two people were dead in one outlying village and five in another. A number of people were reported to have been injured and still trapped under rubble, officials said.

There were numerous reports of centuries-old churches having collapsed. The area has many Romanesque and Renaissance churches.

Part of a university residence and a hotel collapsed in l'Aquila but it was not clear if anyone was inside. The quake brought down the bell tower of a church in the centre of the city and a church in a village.

Some bridges and highways in the mountainous area were closed as a precaution.

The quake struck shortly after 3.30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and was centred in the mountainous Abruzzo region east of Rome.

People in many parts of central Italy felt the quake and some ran out into the streets. Residents of Rome, which is rarely hit by seismic activity, were woken by the quake. Furniture rattled, lights swayed and car alarms went off.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake's epicentre was believed to be about 60 miles (95 km) from Rome and that its depth was 6.2 miles (10 km).

The agency initially put the scale of the quake at 6.7 but later lowered it 6.3. Italian officials put the magnitude at about 5.8.

The quake was the latest and strongest in a series to hit the l'Aquila area on Sunday and Monday.

Earthquakes can be particularly dangerous in parts of Italy because some buildings are centuries-old.

(Writing by Philip Pullella; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Ralph Gowling)
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<cite cite="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L6278438.htm">Reuters AlertNet - At least 16 dead, many injured in Italy quake</cite>

**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 02:04 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Sixteen dead after earthquake hits Italy

Death toll expected to rise after 5.8-magnitude quake hits 70 miles north-east of Rome
At least 16 people have been killed after a strong earthquake struck central Italy today, causing buildings to collapse and sending thousands of panicked residents into the streets, according to a civil protection department official..
The 5.8-magnitude quake struck about 70 miles north-east of Rome at about 3.32am local time (1.32am GMT), officials said.
The civil protection department said the epicentre was near the city of L'Aquila, in the mountainous Abruzzo region.
Four children were reported killed in one building in L'Aquila, two in one outlying village and five in another.
Officials said the death toll was likely to increase as dawn rose over L'Aquila and firefighters made their way through the debris.
Rubble blocked most of the old streets in L'Aquila, burying some parked cars, but even some modern structures on the outskirts collapsed.
Rescue workers were trying to rescue people from collapsed homes, including a student dormitory where a half a dozen students remained trapped inside, RAI state TV reported.
A student who was not named told RAI they were awakened by the quake and ran down the stairs of the dorm before the roof collapsed.
Several people were also reported missing in the area of the quake, which was felt in much of central Italy, including Rome.
"The situation is very serious because the quake affected buildings," said Luca Spoletini, spokesman for the national Civil Protection Department.
He declined to give a death toll, saying rescue operations were under way.
Television footage from the scene showed residents and rescue workers hauling away debris from collapsed buildings and bloodied residents waiting to be tended to in hospital hallways.
Four children died in L'Aquila after their houses collapsed, the ANSA news agency said.
Massimo Cialente, mayor of L'Aquila, told Sky TG24 that two other people were reported dead in the nearby small town of Fossa. He confirmed reports that another eight were missing in another small town.
The ANSA news agency said the dome of a church in L'Aquila collapsed, while the city's cathedral also suffered damages.
Cialente said 100,000 people had left their homes and that many buildings in the city's historic centre were damaged.
The quake was the latest in a series of jolts that struck the area over the last two days.
L'Aquila, a medieval city, lies in a valley surrounded by the Apennine mountains. It is the regional capital of the Abruzzo region, with about 70,000 inhabitants.
The last major quake to hit central Italy was a 5.4-magnitude temblor that struck the south-central Molise region on 31 October 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.

guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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**AlaskaDenise** · April 6, 2009, 02:24 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Devastating Italian earthquake claims 20 lives

Media reports coming out of Italy say at least 20 people have been killed after a strong earthquake hit the central Italian region of Abruzzo early on Monday.

Reports say that five of the dead were from Castelnuovo, where dozens of houses and a church collapsed while Italian media reported four children had died in a hospital in L'Aquila, Abruzzo's capital.

The number of dead and missing remains sketchy as Italian officials attempt to get to grips with the chaos the quake created.

The quake has damaged thousands of buildings and has left thousands of people homeless, Agostino Miozzo, a civil protection department official, told the Reuters news agency.

The US Geological Survey reported the strength of the quake at 6.3, saying it was centered 95 kilometers (59 miles) north-east of Rome at a depth of 10 kilometers. It struck at 03:32 CET the US Geological Survey said on its website.

A magnitude-4.7 aftershock was reported shortly after the quake, which was preceded by two tremors with magnitudes of 3.5 and 3.9, Italian authorities said.

The epicenter of the quake, which was also felt in Rome, was five kilometers outside L'Aquila, a town of 60,000 residents in the Apennine Mountains, Italian public safety officials said.

Main quake follows Sunday evening tremor

The quake came just hours after a 4.6-magnitude tremor shook Italy's north-central region with no reports of damage.

That quake occurred at 10:20 pm on Sunday near Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region and was exceptionally deep at some 28 kilometers, public safety officials told ANSA.

Because of its depth, the tremor was felt over a wide area, notably in the Marche region on the Adriatic coast.

A powerful earthquake in the region claimed 13 lives in 1997 and damaged or destroyed priceless cultural heritage.

Italy is dissected by two fault lines, with around 20 million people at risk from earthquakes.

Past deadly earthquakes in Italy include an October 2002 quake that killed 30 people including 27 pupils and their teacher who were crushed under their schoolhouse in the tiny medieval village of San Giuliano di Puglia.

Twenty-two years earlier, on November 23, 1980, a violent quake struck the southern region of Irpiona near Naples, killing 2,570, injuring 8,850 and displacing 30,000.

Italian earthquake – DW – 04/07/2009

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4155214,00.html

Earthquake victims in central Italy, many with only makeshift shelter, were forced to endure a wet night on Monday as the search for survivors continued.

**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 02:29 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Killer earthquake strikes Italy - Europe, World - The Independent

Killer earthquake strikes Italy

By Marta Falconi, Associated Press
Monday, 6 April 2009

A powerful earthquake struck central Italy early today, killing at least 20 people, collapsing buildings and leaving thousands homeless.

Officials say the death toll is likely to rise as rescuers make their way through the debris. Firefighters aided by dogs were trying to rescue people from crumbled homes, including a student dormitory in the city of L'Aquila where half a dozen students remained trapped.

Outside the half-collapsed dorm, tearful students huddled together wrapped in blankets, some still in their slippers. An unidentified student told RAI state TV they were awakened by the quake and ran down the stairs of the dorm before the roof came down.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude of the quake was 6.3, though Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8.

The quake struck about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Rome at 3:32 a.m. local time (0132 GMT), officials said. The Civil Protection Department said the epicenter was near L'Aquila, in the mountainous Abruzzo region.

By early morning, the death toll stood at 20, including five children, with some 30 people unaccounted for, carabinieri paramilitary police said. In addition to L'Aquila, the town of Castelnuovo appeared hard hit, with five of the dead there.

"It's the worst tragedy since the start of the millennium," said Guido Bertolaso, the head of the Civil Protection Department.Premier Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency, freeing up federal funds to deal with the disaster. He said he was weighing whether to cancel a planned visit to Russia to deal with the crisis.

Residents and rescue workers were hauling away debris from collapsed buildings by hand while bloodied victims waited to be tended to in hospital hallways. On the city's dusty streets, residents hugged one another, prayed quietly or frantically tried to call relatives.

"We left as soon as we felt the first tremors," said Antonio D'Ostilio, 22, as he stood on a street in L'Aquila with a huge suitcase piled with clothes he had thrown together. "We woke up all of a sudden and we immediately ran downstairs in our pajamas."

Nearby, firefighters successfully pulled a woman covered in dust from the debris of her four-story home. Rescue crews demanded quiet as they listened for signs of life from other people believed still trapped inside.

Agostino Miozzo, an official with the Civil Protection Department, said between 10,000 and 15,000 buildings were damaged.

"This means that the we'll have several thousand people to assist over the next few weeks and months," Miozzo told Sky Italia. "Our goal is to give shelter to all by tonight."

Four children died in L'Aquila after their houses collapsed, the ANSA news agency said. They quoted doctors at the main San Salvatore dell'Aquila hospital as saying there was nothing they could do for them.

ANSA said the dome of a church in L'Aquila collapsed, while the city's cathedral also suffered damages.

L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said some 100,000 people had left their homes and that many buildings in the city's historic center were damaged.

A series of jolts have struck the area over the past two days.

L'Aquila, a medieval city, lies in a v alley surrounded by the Apennine mountains. It is the regional capital of the Abruzzo region, with about 70,000 inhabitants.

Bertolaso likened Monday's quake to the temblors that struck the central Umbria region on Sept. 26, 1997. That quake killed 10 people and devastated medieval buildings and churches, including Assisi's famed basilica, across the region.

The last major quake to hit central Italy was a 5.4-magnitude temblor that struck the south-central Molise region on 31 October, 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.
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<cite cite="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/killer-earthquake-strikes-italy-1663547.html">Killer earthquake strikes Italy - Europe, World - The Independent</cite>

**AlaskaDenise** · April 6, 2009, 03:54 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Aftershocks keep coming.
-------
MAG UTC DATE-TIME

MAP 4.3 2009/04/06 07:17:13 42.448 13.363 10.0 CENTRAL ITALY
MAP 4.4 2009/04/06 03:56:48 42.387 13.322 10.0 CENTRAL ITALY
MAP 4.8 2009/04/06 02:37:06 42.512 13.397 10.0 CENTRAL ITALY
MAP 6.3 2009/04/06 01:32:42 42.423 13.395 10.0 CENTRAL ITALY
MAP 4.0 2009/04/05 20:48:57 42.400 13.409 10.0 CENTRAL ITALY
MAP 4.6 2009/04/05 20:20:52 44.355 11.979 6.4 NORTHERN ITALY

410 Gone

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Europe_eqs.php

**AlaskaDenise** · April 6, 2009, 04:19 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Photo of policeman on phone, showing building that may have problems with an aftershock.....

__________________________________________________ _______

BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Italy earthquake

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7984969.stm

BBC, News, BBC News, news online, world, uk, international, foreign, british, online, service

**Shiloh** · April 6, 2009, 07:24 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,512623,00.html

Powerful Earthquake in Italy Kills at Least 50

Monday, April 06, 2009

A powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings early Monday as residents slept, killing at least 50 people and trapping many more, officials said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, arriving in L'Aquila hours after the quake, said the death toll was likely to rise as rescue crews clawed through the debris of fallen homes.

About 100,000 people were homeless, L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said. It was not clear if that estimate included surrounding towns. Some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, officials said.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi declared a state of emergency, freeing up federal funds to deal with the disaster, and canceled a visit to Russia so he could deal with the quake crisis.

Click to view photos

The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's quake was magnitude 6.3, but Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8.

In L'Aquila, slabs of walls, twisted steel supports, furniture and wire fences were strewn about the streets and gray dust carpeted sidewalks, cars and residents.

As ambulances screamed through the city, firefighters aided by dogs worked feverishly to reach people trapped in fallen buildings, including a student dormitory where half a dozen university students were believed still inside.

Outside the half-collapsed building, tearful young people huddled together, wrapped in blankets, some still in their slippers after being roused from sleep by the quake.

"We managed to come down with other students but we had to sneak through a hole in the stairs as the whole floor came down," said student Luigi Alfonsi, 22. "I was in bed ? it was like it would never end as I heard pieces of the building collapse around me."

Residents and rescue workers hauled away debris from collapsed buildings by hand. Firefighters pulled a woman covered in dust from the debris of her four-story home. Rescue crews demanded quiet as they listened for signs of life from other people believed still trapped inside.

A body lay on the sidewalk, covered by a white sheet.

Parts of L'Aquila's main hospital were evacuated because they were at risk of collapse, and only two operating rooms were in use. Bloodied victims waited in hospital hallways or in the courtyard and many were being treated in the open. A field hospital was being set up. Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi urged Italians to donate blood.

Many of L'Aquila's modern buildings were damaged and the mayor said the historic center also suffered damage; access to the historic center was blocked. The Italian news agency ANSA said L'Aquila's cathedral was damaged and the dome of a church had collapsed.

The earthquake's epicenter was about 70 miles northeast of Rome near the medieval city of L'Aquila. It struck at 3:32 a.m. local time in a quake-prone region that has had at least nine smaller jolts since the beginning of April.

L'Aquila is the capital of the Abruzzo region and lies in a valley surrounded by the Apennine mountains. The 15 miles southeast of L'Aquila, appeared hard hit, and five were confirmed dead there.

In the dusty streets, as aftershocks rumbled through, residents hugged one another, prayed quietly or frantically tried to call relatives. Residents covered in dust pushed carts full of clothes and blankets that they had thrown together before fleeing their homes.

"We left as soon as we felt the first tremors," said Antonio D'Ostilio, 22, as he stood on a street in L'Aquila with a huge suitcase piled with clothes. "We woke up all of a sudden and we immediately ran downstairs in our pajamas."

Stadiums and sporting fields were being readied to house the homeless, Civil Protection official Agostino Miozzo said.

"This means that the we'll have several thousand people to assist over the next few weeks and months," Miozzo told Sky Italia. "Our goal is to give shelter to all by tonight."

At least one student from Greece was trapped in the debris and another was injured, the Greek Foreign Ministry said. Greece offered to send a rescue team to help, the ministry said.

The Israeli Embassy in Rome said officials were trying to make contact with a few Israeli citizens believed to be in the region who had not been in touch with their families. Embassy spokeswoman Rachel Feinmesser did not give an exact number.

The last major quake to hit central Italy was a 5.4-magnitude temblor that struck the south-central Molise region on Oct. 31, 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 09:50 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Reuters AlertNet - More than 90 dead in Italian quake

More than 90 dead in Italian quake

06 Apr 2009 12:42:50 GMT
Source: Reuters

* Quake kills more than 90 people, worst in Italy since 1980
* Up 50,000 people could be homeless, official says
* Berlusconi declares national emergency
* Some towns almost totally wiped out, MP says

(Adds parliamentary speaker says some towns wiped out)
By Deepa Babington
L'AQUILA, Italy, April 6 (Reuters) -

A powerful earthquake struck central Italy as residents slept on Monday morning, killing more than 90 people and making up to 50,000 homeless.

"Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in their entirety," a somber Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said before the chamber observed a moment of silence.

The Italian news agency Ansa, quoting rescue workers, said the death toll had reached 92 nearly 12 hours after the quake struck.

Most of the dead were in L'Aquila, a 13th-century mountain city about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome, and surrounding towns and villages in the Abruzzo region.

Houses, historic churches and other buildings were demolished in the worst quake to hit Italy in nearly 30 years. Hundreds of people were injured and some 15,000 buildings declared off limits.

"I woke up hearing what sounded like a bomb," said Angela Palumbo, 87, said as she walked on a street in L'Aquila.

"We managed to escape with things falling all around us. Everything was shaking, furniture falling. I don't remember ever seeing anything like this in my life," she said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni visited the area and said the death toll had surpassed 50.

Luca Spoletini, a Civil Protection Department spokesman, said the quake may have made up to 50,000 people homeless. Some 26 cities and towns were seriously damaged.

In the small town of Onna alone, 10 people were killed, said a Reuters photographer who saw a mother and her infant daughter carried away in the same coffin. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled a trip to Moscow and declared a national emergency, which would free up funds for aid and rebuilding. Pope Benedict said he was saying a special prayer for the victims.

Older houses and buildings made of stone, particularly in outlying villages that have not seen much restoration, collapsed like straw houses.

Hospitals appealed for help from doctors and nurses throughout Italy. The stench of gas filled some parts of the mountain towns and villages as mains ruptured.

Residents of Rome, which is rarely hit by seismic activity, were woken by the quake, which rattled furniture and swayed lights in most of central Italy. It struck shortly after 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and registered between 5.8 and 6.3 magnitude.

"MY FATHER IS SURELY DEAD"
"When the quake hit, I rushed out to my father's house and opened the main door and everything had collapsed. My father is surely dead. I called for help but no one was around," said Camillo Berardi in L'Aquila.

Rubble was strewn throughout the city of 68,000 people and nearby towns, blocking roads and hampering rescue teams. Old women wailed and residents armed with nothing but bare hands helped firefighters and rescue workers tear through the rubble

"Thousands of buildings collapsed or were damaged," said Agostino Miozzo, a Civil Protection official.

A resident in L'Aquila standing by an apartment block that had been reduced to the height of an adult said: "This building was four storeys high."

Some cars were buried by the rubble.

In another part of the city, residents tried to hush the wailing of grief to try to pinpoint the sound of a crying baby.

There were numerous reports of some of the area's centuries-old Romanesque and Renaissance churches collapsing.

Part of a university residence and a hotel collapsed in L'Aquila and at least one person was still trapped.

The quake brought down the bell tower of a church in the centre of L'Aquila. Bridges and highways in the mountainous area were closed as a precaution.

Weeks before the disaster, an Italian scientist had predicted a major quake around L'Aquila, based on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas.

Seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet. Italy's Civil Protection Agency reassured locals at the end of March that tremors being felt were "absolutely normal" for a seismic area.

The quake was the latest and strongest in a series to hit the L'Aquila area on Sunday and Monday. Earthquakes can be particularly dangerous in parts of Italy because so many buildings are centuries-old. About 2,700 people died in an earthquake in the south in 1980.

(Writing by Philip Pullella; Additional reporting by Reuters Rome bureau; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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<cite cite="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L6278438.htm">Reuters AlertNet - More than 90 dead in Italian quake</cite>

**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 11:03 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Italy. Earthquake Map (IFRCRC).

[From Reuters Alertnet. LINK. EDITED.]

<table style="width: auto;"><tbody><tr><td></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: right;">From MAPS</td></tr></tbody></table>

**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 12:50 PM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Italy's Deadly Earthquake: Could Tragedy Have Been Avoided? - TIME

Italy's Earthquake: Could Tragedy Have Been Avoided?

By Jeff Israely / Rome Monday, Apr. 06, 2009

Italy's worst earthquake in nearly three decades struck early Monday in the central region of Abruzzo, killing at least 90 and leaving tens of thousands homeless. As the death toll from the pre-dawn quake rose through the day, the tragedy took an extra bitter twist as it emerged that a local seismologist had predicted a major tremor was on its way.

Dozens of residents in the province of L'Aquila, some 80 miles east of Rome, were crushed in their beds when the earthquake struck at 3:32 a.m. Aftershocks could be felt through the early morning hours, with efforts to find survivors intensifying into dusk. The original quake, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, shook awake most residents in the Italian capital, and the effects could be felt as far away as Naples. It was the deadliest earthquake in Italy since the one that killed more than 2,500 people in the southern town of Irpinia in November 1980.

Throughout Monday, Italian television showed scenes of entire blocks of homes decimated and weeping survivors walking dazed in the dusty aftermath. Pope Benedict XVI offered prayers for the victims, while Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi cancelled a trip to Russia. Other world leaders, including President Barack Obama, called to express their solidarity with the Italians. The deadly quake came just hours after a magnitude 4.6 tremor was felt across Italy's north-central region, with no reports of damage.

Italy's boot-shaped peninsula is criss-crossed by two fault lines, with about 20 million of its 57 million residents at risk from earthquakes.

As emergency workers and volunteers began to search for survivors under the rubble in L'Aquila Monday morning, perennial questions were already brewing over the sometimes slipshod building standards in Italy and the latest methods used for trying to predict when the earth will shake.

Indeed, a little noticed controversy had erupted the week before, after Giampaolo Giuliani, a seismologist at the nearby Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Abruzzo, predicted, following months of small tremors in the area, that a much bigger jolt was on its way. The researcher had said that a "disastrous" earthquake would strike on March 29, but when it didn't, Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, last week officially denounced Giuliani in court for "false alarm."

"These imbeciles enjoy spreading false news," Bertalaso was quoted as saying. "Everyone knows that you can't predict earthquakes."

Using a method that measures gasses emitted by small tremors, Giuliani, it turns out, was partially right. A much smaller seismic shift struck on the day he said it would, with the truly disastrous one arriving just one week later. "Someone owes me an apology," Giuliani, who is also a resident of L'Aquila, told reporters Monday. "The situation here is dramatic. I am devastated, but also angry."

It remains to be seen whether the buildings that were destroyed, which include a hospital and at least one school, were constructed according to new national seismic standards that were implemented after the Irpinia tragedy.

The last major Italian earthquake, which measured 5.5 on the Richter scale, struck in San Giuliano di Puglia in the southern region of Molise in 2002. A teacher and 27 children were killed in that quake after a school collapsed. In February, five people were found guilty of negligence, including the town's mayor whose daughter was one of the victims.

The latest tragedy in Abruzzo is unlikely to resolve the question of whether scientists' predictions can help minimize the damage and death wreaked by earthquakes. What we know for sure is that following proper building standards certainly do.
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<cite cite="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1889644,00.html?xid=rss-topstories">Italy's Deadly Earthquake: Could Tragedy Have Been Avoided? - TIME</cite>

**Giuseppe** · April 6, 2009, 02:46 PM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Italy Earthquake Kills 150, Leaves Thousands Homeless (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

Italy Earthquake Kills 150, Leaves Thousands Homeless (Update1)

By Steve Scherer and Flavia Rotondi
April 6 (Bloomberg) --

Italy?s deadliest earthquake in almost three decades killed more than 150 today in the region of Abruzzo, left tens of thousands without shelter and leveled medieval buildings.

The death toll in the central province of L?Aquila will probably rise, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said, adding that 1,500 were injured.

Rescuers combed through the rubble from the 6.3-magnitude quake, whose epicenter was 95 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Rome. More than 10,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed and as many as 50,000 of the province?s 300,000 people may be homeless, the Civil Protection Agency said. The death toll exceeded 150, the Italian news agency Ansa reported, citing hospital sources.

The quake damaged at least one hospital, a student dormitory, the regional police headquarters, thousands of homes and several churches dating as far back as the 13th century. The quake struck at 3:32 a.m. local time and was felt in Rome for about a minute, shaking buildings and setting off car alarms.

?I was awakened by violent shaking and flakes of paint falling from our ceiling, then a crack opened in the wall behind my bed,? said Rosella Neroni, 66, who lives in Teramo, about 35 miles from the epicenter. ?My husband, my daughters who live upstairs and my grandchildren all ran from the house and we spent the night outside.?

Access Routes Cleared
Rescue services managed to clear access routes, while main highways into the area were closed to most traffic. Buses to evacuate survivors were mixed on the roads with heavy equipment for rescue workers and hearses to remove victims.

Some towns were wiped out. In Onna, an agricultural village of about 300 people whose residences are mostly built from stone and plaster, virtually no buildings were left standing. A third of the population may still be missing, rescue workers on the scene said. The parish priest celebrated Mass for victims in a field near some caskets at about 5 p.m., about the time when the first teams with rescue dogs arrived to try to sniff out survivors some 14 hours after the quake.

Further tremors can?t be ruled out, the prime minister told a press conference, adding that sleeping arrangements, including 4,000 hotel rooms, for 10,000 people are being prepared and 4,000 rescue workers have been deployed to the scene. Ansa said Italy would seek financial assistance from the European Union.

Quake Prediction
The quake came a week after civil emergency officials met in the region to respond to growing concern about a possible earthquake, following a series of tremors in the area. One local researcher had said a major quake may be coming, though local authorities dismissed his research.

?Just as economists cannot predict the direction of stocks, we cannot look into the future,? geophysicist Enzo Boschi, director of the Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome, said in an interview.

Temperatures in the stricken area dipped to about 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight and climbed as high as 16 degrees Celsius during the day. Emergency authorities said they plan to build tent cities for shelter.

Italy?s benchmark S&P/MIB index fell 1.2 percent to 16,690 in Milan, falling from a seven-week high.

Berlusconi declared a state of emergency to speed aid to the region and postponed a trip to Moscow.

Plants Closed
Main rail routes were operating after the high-speed line between Naples and Rome opened at 7 a.m., railway company Ferrovie dello said in an e-mailed statement. Finmeccanica, Italy?s biggest defense company, said it closed two plants in the area.

The epicenter was 6 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital, L?Aquila, a university city of 68,500 in the Abruzzo region whose population swells to around 100,000 during the academic year.

At least seven students were trapped in the ruins of a dormitory in L?Aquila, Ansa reported. The body of one student was recovered from the building. Greek state television channel NET TV reported that one Greek student escaped from the dorm and was in stable condition, though her brother was missing.

Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Theodoros Kassimis told NET TV the Greek embassy is preparing to airlift students to Athens.

The city of L?Aquila, which means eagle in Italian, sits on a hilltop flanked by some of the area?s highest mountains, including the Gran Sasso, which reaches 2,912 meters (9,580 feet). The city is known for churches dating to the 12th century and a fountain of 99 spouts built in 1272. Church-building was spurred when Aquila native Pietro del Morrone became Pope Celestine V.

13th-Century Church
Santa Maria di Collemaggio, a 13th century church built on orders from Celestine, was nearly destroyed by the quake, Sky TG24 television reported. San Liberatore a Maiella, rebuilt in the 11th century after being destroyed by an earthquake in 990, survived the temblor.

Italy lies to the north of a zone where the African and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. The plates continuously rub against each other, sometimes causing earthquakes. A magnitude- 5.9 earthquake in 2002 near Foggia, southeast of the epicenter of today?s quake, killed 29 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Today?s quake was the country?s largest since 1980, when about 3,000 were killed in a quake near Naples, according to the USGS.

Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece suffer a higher number of earthquakes than other western European countries because they lie in an active earthquake zone between Europe and Africa. Greece is considered the most seismically active country in Europe.

The head of the Civil Protection Agency, Guido Bertolaso, said the region was hit by ?several smaller tremors in the days preceding the quake,? though it wasn?t feasible to evacuate the area. Schools were closed before the earthquake hit as a precaution.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Scherer in Onna, Italy, at scherer@bloomberg.net; Flavia Rotondi in Onna, Italy, at frotondi@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: April 6, 2009 15:06 EDT
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<cite cite="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aNQUkJ22oVfw">Italy Earthquake Kills 150, Leaves Thousands Homeless (Update1) - Bloomberg.com</cite>

**AlaskaDenise** · April 6, 2009, 03:28 PM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Italian scientist warned of deadly L'Aquila earthquake, but was dismissed by the government

An Italian scientist who accurately prophesized the earthquake in L'Aquila - and was branded an "imbecile" by the government - said Monday he is owed a big apology.

"There are people who should apologize and whose consciences should be heavy with what happened," said vulcanologist Giampaolo Giuliani.

"I am devastated, but also angry," he said. "I want them to apologize to all those who died."

The scientist, who says he can fortell earthquakes by measuring radon gas emissions from the earth's crust and monitoring the phases of Venus, had warned in TV and newspaper interviews that a "disastrous" event was about to happen in L'Aquila.

He even picked a date: Sunday, March 29.

His warnings, coupled with an ongoing series of small tremors in the area, prompted the Italian civilian defense agency to convene a meeting of quake experts on March 31.

They agreed no one can predict earthquakes and issued a statement saying so.

When April 1 arrived and nothing terrible happened, the head of the agency, Guido Bertolaso, officially denounced Giuliani as "one of these imbeciles who amuse themselves by spreading false news."

Giuliani's warnings were wiped from the internet and he was threatened with prison for fearmongering.

Turns out he was only a week off.

"Underestimating the application of new technologies simply because they are brought forward by researchers who are not part of the reigning establishment is an act of criminal negligence and today we are paying for its consequences," said nuclear physicist Michelangelo Ambrosio, who works with Giuliani.

But even as dust and faint cries continued to rise from the rubble of L'Aquila, Bertolaso kept insisting Giuliani - who also lost his house in the quake - was no Cassandra.

"There is no possibility of predicting an earthquake. This is a fact in the world's scientific community," he said.

Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi ducked defensively at a press conference when pressed about Giuliani's warning, saying attention should be focused on relief efforts.

"We can discuss the predictability of earthquakes later," he said.

Page not found – New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/04/06/2009-04-06_italian_scientist_warned_of_deadly_laqui-1.html

**Giuseppe** · April 7, 2009, 01:42 AM

Re: 6.3 Earthquake Hits Italy

Reuters AlertNet - Italy finds quake survivors, but hopes fading

Italy finds quake survivors, but hopes fading

07 Apr 2009 05:31:37 GMT
Source: Reuters

* Death toll rises to 179, at least 1,500 injured
* Two saved after nearly 24 hours, but hopes dim for missing
* Italy's worst quake since 1980 wipes out towns, villages
* Conflicting reports over number of homeless

(Updates with new death toll)
By Deepa Babington and Antonella Cinelli
L'AQUILA, Italy, April 7 (Reuters) -

Rescuers used mechanical diggers and their bare hands to search through the night on Tuesday for survivors of Italy's worst quake in three decades which killed nearly 180 people.

More than 24 hours after the quake shook the central Italian region of Abruzzo, emergency workers dug out two students early on Tuesday from collapsed buildings in L'Aquila, the medieval mountain city of 68,000 people worst hit by the disaster.

Rescuers have pulled some 100 people from the rubble but with other missing, civil protection officials said hopes were dimming of finding many more alive.

Early on Tuesday morning civil protection officials put the number of dead at 179. There were at least 34 people missing and 1,500 injured. They said the number of homeless was at least 17,000, far less that the some 50,000 estimated on Monday.

The quake, measuring between 5.8 and 6.3 on the Richter scale, struck shortly after 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) on Monday, catching residents in their sleep and flattening houses, ancient churches and other buildings in 26 cities and towns.

Aftershocks rattled the area, some 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome in the rugged Abruzzo region, well into the night as thousands of people sheltered in their cars and in tent camps.

"It is a serious disaster. Now we must rebuild and that will require huge sums of money," said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose government already faces a high deficit and huge public debt.

Berlusconi declared a national emergency and pledged to seek hundreds of million of euros in EU disaster funds.

In L'Aquila, civil protection officials estimated two-thirds of buildings had been ruined. By the glare of floodlights, emergency workers and firemen combed the rubble of a university dormitory, where several students were still believed buried.

Each successful rescue sparked celebrations by anxious relatives and emergency workers, many of them volunteers. A fireman recounted how he pulled a boy alive from the mangled remains of his house after a day-long search.

"All we could see was his head sticking from the rubble, his entire body was buried. We kept digging, picking piece by piece of debris and we finally managed to get him out -- when we did the fatigue was great but so was our joy," he said.

"DON'T GO BACK TO YOUR HOUSE"
Police patrolled houses ripped open by the quake and arrested several people for looting. Thousands of tents were put up in parks and on football pitches to shelter the homeless for the night and hotels on the Adriatic coast were requisitioned.

"It's been such a hard and long day. Now that we are sitting here in our car it's all beginning to sink in," said L'Aquila resident Piera Colucci as she prepared to sleep in her vehicle.

Berlusconi, already scrambling for funds to cope with an economic crisis, said his cabinet would provide 30 million euros ($40.60 million) for immediate assistance and vowed to build a new town near L'Aquila in the next two years. He ordered 1,000 troops to the area on Tuesday.

"Tonight don't go back to your houses, it could be dangerous," Berlusconi told residents on state television.

Shaken survivors described the quake striking like a bomb in the night and the anguish of not knowing the fate of loved ones.

"I only remember this huge rumble and then someone dragged me out, but I don't know what happened to my wife and three-year-old son," said 35-year-old Stefano Esposito.

It was Italy's worst earthquake since November 1980, when a quake measuring 6.5 killed 2,735 people. Many of the medieval villages surrounding L'Aquila were virtually flattened.

In Onna, home to some 250 residents, at least 38 people died. Tearful relatives gathered while wooden coffins were placed on communal ground.

As messages of condolences poured in from across the world, Italian politicians put aside rivalries and united in mourning.

But there was still room for controversy. Weeks before, an Italian scientist predicted a major quake around L'Aquila based on the radon gas found in seismically active areas, but he was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

"For weeks they told us to stay calm, that we could live in our houses, that there was no problem. Now we see what the problem was," one female resident of L'Aquila told state TV.

(Writing by Silvia Aloisi and Daniel Flynn; additional reporting by Reuters Rome bureau; editing by Matthew Jones)
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<cite cite="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L7309178.htm">Reuters AlertNet - Italy finds quake survivors, but hopes fading</cite>

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