Thousands Mourn Quake Victims at Funeral Mass
By RACHEL DONADIO
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 10, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/europe/11italy.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
L’AQUILA, Italy — Thousands of weeping mourners took part Friday in an emotional funeral Mass for the victims of an earthquake that devastated the mountainous Abruzzo region of central Italy, leaving 289 people dead.
The funerals were held as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the government had deployed hundreds of police and troops to deter looters and had already made some arrests.The funeral service was led by the Vatican’s second highest official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who told the mourners that death teaches us that “everything can stop in a moment.” When everything ends, he said, “All that remains is love.”
Emotions ran very high in the crowd. Sobs could be heard. Friends and family comforted each other while Red Cross volunteers distributed bottles of water to distraught mourners.
The fact that Vatican had granted a special dispensation to hold a Mass on Good Friday, the only day on the Roman Catholic calendar on which Mass is not normally said, added to the emotion of the day. Priests wore flowing white robes draped with purple, the color traditionally worn at Easter and for funerals.
As the service began under partly cloudy skies in a vast parade ground, there were 205 coffins laid out in the vast square, brown for adults and white for children. Most were covered with wreaths of flowers.
The coffins of four young sisters from the Germinelli family lay side by side, bearing their names and dates of birth: Rosa 1992, Michaela 1995, Chiara 1998, Giuseppina 2002. Each had a large bunch of white lilies wrapped in cellophane with a ribbon reading “From Papa.”
“We don’t even have more tears to cry,” said a woman who identified herself only by her first name, Lorella. “We’re realizing we are nothing. Life can slip through your hands from one minute to the next.”
Another woman, Imma Abate, wept as she greeted friends. The family who lived in an apartment she let out had all died: a husband, a pregnant wife and their 2-year-old child. “I want to go away,” Mrs. Abate said. “I want to leave Italy.”
Friends gathered around the coffin of Alessio Di Simone, born in 1984, who died in the student dormitory that collapsed in L’Aquila, the town worst hit by the predawn earthquake Monday. On his coffin they had placed a photograph of Alessio smiling with a garland of leaves around his head.
A woman named Elena said she had lost her cousin, who had died at the age of 47 along with his wife. “I imagine my cousin in a good moment when we were walking together,” she said, “and I repeat that moment over and over in my head.”
Pope Benedict XVI, in a message to survivors of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake, said that he felt “spiritually among you” and that he shared their anguish.
The message was read by the pope’s secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, at the opening of the collective funeral. Pope Benedict plans to visit the quake area in the coming weeks.
The pope “from the start has not stopped praying for you, and today he wanted to be with you,” Cardinal Bertone said.
Prime Minister Berlusconi, who attended the funeral mass, told a news conference here that more than 1,300 members of Italy’s security forces, including the military, were now patrolling the area looking for looters. He said at least four people already hat been arrested, found with objects “that probably came from a home,” and would be quickly put on trial.
Mr. Berlusconi also said the area had endured at least 826 aftershocks since the quake, including 186 on Thursday, but that they were mostly minor and he urged people not to panic. “This cannot worry us,” he said.
Nonetheless some of the aftershocks, including a few felt in nearby Rome, damaged buildings in medieval towns and unnerved many of the 17,000 people living in tent villages. Thousands more survivors are being housed in hotels.Mr. Berlusconi also said that the government would draw up a list of monuments that foreign countries could choose from and become responsible for their restoration. President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had already expressed “enthusiasm and want to pursue this,” he said.
Mr. Berlusconi also promised that the government would work more rapidly to limit the “suffering and discomfort of people” than other governments faced with similar events had done in the past.
“People have been asking me, please don’t leave us alone. I made a promise to them in front of their coffins,” he said. “The government has assumed this responsibility.”
The funeral mass was broadcast live on national television, and the government declared Friday a day of national mourning. Flags flew at half staff, shops lowered their shutters or turned off lights and traffic wardens removed their brightly colored jackets. A minute of silence was observed in dozens of places, from airports to the Vatican museums.
A representative of the Italian Muslim community, Mohamed Nour Dachan, also participated in the funeral, and many of the rescue workers helping in the relief effort were present.
More than 5,000 people participated in the funeral, officials said.
“We have cried together, we have prayed together next to the coffins of people no longer here,” said Monsignor Giuseppe Molinari, the archbishop of L’Aquila, as he read off a list of first names of many of the victims. “Not even the tragedy of the earthquake will take them from our hearts.”
Five days after the earthquake, rescuers were still digging bodies from the rubble, with a 53-year-old woman and her teenage daughter found dead in the wreckage of their home overnight, bringing the toll to 289.
But the Civil Protection Agency, which is coordinating Italy’s response to the crisis, said the search was almost over.
Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome and Meg Bortin from Paris.
At least 207 dead in Italy quake
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 6 2009 04:09 | Last updated: April 7 2009 08:32
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be074366-2257-11de-8380-00144feabdc0.html
Rescue workers with heavy lifting gear were struggling on Tuesday to find survivors after Italy’s worst earthquake in nearly 30 years turned the historic medieval centre of L’Aquila into a ghost city.
Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said 207 people had been killed and at least 1,500 injured, with many more still missing.
As darkness fell on Monday night six students were recovered alive from the rubble of their hostel and one confirmed dead, as hopes were fading for others trapped in a nearby apartment block. These were among thousands of buildings left in ruins or damaged in the city and surrounding villages.
Some 100,000 people had evacuated the area, with a tent city being prepared because of the danger of after-shocks.
Residents filed out of L’Aquila dragging suitcases behind them. Empty streets were silent except for the occasional car alarm. About 1,500 people were injured.
Questions were already being raised over whether relatively modern buildings, including the student hostel with some 120 residents, had been constructed according to anti-seismic standards.
There was also a controversy over whether the authorities had downplayed warnings of recent seismic activity in the area. There had been some warnings. Schools and the university had been closed for two days last week after serious tremors but life had returned briefly to normal.
One dust-covered fireman pointed to centuries-old stone buildings still intact next to the hostel, which lay lopsided, with its lower floors flattened. “I don’t have much hope,” he said as a crane slowly removed sections of concrete.
A young student in shock simply said: “We are waiting for our friends.”
Many medieval homes and famed churches in the central region of Abruzzo also bore heavy damage. The dome of the 13th-century Santa Maria Paganica had collapsed.
Elderly residents sat dazed in the piazza outside, their friends beneath rubble nearby. Streets were filled with debris and cars crushed flat by fallen blocks of stone.
Few buildings were left unscathed and residents wondered whether it would be months or years before they could safely return. Older houses and buildings made of stone, particularly in outlying villages that have not seen much restoration, collapsed like straw houses.
“No tears,” said Francesco Massimi as he collected books and belongings from his shattered home. As he spoke, another tremor struck, sending him back out into the street. Dust and plaster covered his bed. He thanked God for saving his family and put his faith in government promises of reconstruction aid. Few have earthquake insurance.
Guido Bertolaso, head of the civil protection agency in charge of rescue efforts, said it was the worst quake in Italy this millennium. Thirty schoolchildren were killed in a quake in southern Italy in 2002. “I woke up hearing what sounded like a bomb,” said Angela Palumbo, 87, 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.
L’Aquila, a hilltop town on the edge of the Apennine mountain range now better known as a university city, has suffered quakes through the centuries. “Such a beautiful city of history and tradition, it deserves to be saved,” said Mr Massimi.
Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, declared a national emergency and cancelled a visit to Moscow. The earthquake, which struck at just after 3.30 on Monday morning, was the most devastating since 1980, when more than 2,700 people were killed in the town of Eboli, south of Naples.
Strong earthquake hits central Italy
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: April 6 2009 04:09 | Last updated: April 6 2009 14:55
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/be074366-2257-11de-8380-00144feabdc0.html
Rescue workers were desperately seeking survivors under collapsed buildings after a powerful earthquake hit the area around L’Aquila in central Italy before dawn on Monday.
The quake struck in the Abruzzo region of the Apennines at about 3.30am, sending shock waves that were felt as far as Rome nearly 100km away. The US Geological Survey measured it at 6.3 on the Richter scale, while Italian officials said it recorded 5.8.
The extent of the damage in remoter areas was still being assessed and one official spoke of thousands of buildings damaged. Four children were reported killed after their home collapsed. Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets. Rescue workers cited by Ansa, the Italian news agency, said more than 90 people had been killed and the toll was expected to rise.
The medieval city with some 100,000 inhabitants is famed for its Romanesque churches which have been frequently damaged by quakes over the centuries. Houses and churches were reported to be severely hit in the historic centre of the city, which is the capital of Abruzzo.
Rescue workers were digging into the ruins of a student dormitory near piazza Pasquale Paoli, not knowing how many students were missing.
Guido Bertolaso, head of the civil Protection Agency in charge of rescue efforts, said it was the worst quake in Italy this millennium. Thirty schoolchildren were killed in a quake in southern Italy in 2002.
Before the quake, geologists had been expressing alarm at government cutbacks at seismic monitoring centres, warning that no one would listen to them until the next disaster struck.
At Least 92 Die in Earthquake in Italy
By RACHEL DONADIO and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: April 6, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/world/europe/07italy.html?ref=global-home
L’AQUILA, Italy — More than 90 people died and tens of thousands were left homeless when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook central Italy early Monday, seriously damaging historic buildings in the medieval hill towns of Abruzzo Region east of Rome, officials said.
Most of the deaths and damage were centered in L’Aquila, a picturesque fortress town at the quake’s epicenter.
“It’s a disaster never before seen,” said Franco Totani, a lawyer who said he was leaving the town to stay at an uncle’s house in Rome. “I’ve seen earthquakes before but this is a catastrophe.”
Outside a damaged convent, a dozen nuns still dressed in bright orange and blue bathrobes climbed into a van headed to an assistance center. Sister Lidia, the mother superior, said an 82-year old nun had died of shock. “The quake, it was very strong,” she said.
The narrow streets of the historic center were filled with rubble, and parked cars were crushed under large blocks of debris.
The damage to historic monuments was extensive. The cupola of the 18th-century Santa Maria del Sofraggio church cracked open like an eggshell, exposing the stucco patterns inside the dome.
Part of the transept of the 13th-century Santa Maria di Collemaggio basilica collapsed, as well as a small cupola in the 18th-century church of Sant’Agostino.
Other historic buildings were damaged in at least 26 surrounding towns in the Apennine mountains. “Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in their entirety,” Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of Parliament, said in Rome before the chamber observed a moment of silence.
Aftershocks shuddered through the area during the day, and rain came in the evening, hampering rescue efforts as people clawed through the debris by hand, frantically seeking survivors.
By the evening, the government put the official death toll at 91 and Elio Vito, minister for parliamentary relations, said the number was “destined to grow.”
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who canceled a trip to Moscow to survey the region by helicopter, declared a state of emergency, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Authorities said 1,500 people had been injured. A spokesman for Italy’s Civil Protection Agency said on national television that an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people had been left homeless.
The situation is “extremely critical, as many buildings have collapsed,” Luca Spoletini, a spokesman for the civil protection agency, told ANSA shortly after the quake struck.
In L’Aquila, authorities assisted elderly residents in leaving the historic main square, where they had fled in search of safety.
Parts of the main hospital were evacuated because they were at risk of collapse, The Associated Press reported, 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.
Four children died in the hospital after their house collapsed, ANSA reported. A fifth child died in the village of Fossa, eight miles from L’Aquila, a town of 80,000.
The quake struck around 3:30 a.m. and could be felt as far away as Rome, some 60 miles to the west, where it rattled furniture and set off car alarms. The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake that hit L’Aquila was just one of several quakes to hit the region overnight.
Part of a student dormitory in L’Aquila collapsed, and initial reports said one person died and seven people were missing in the debris. At midday, shaken students sat outside the rubble of the four-story dormitory, expressing fears for the fate of others who may not have survived.
“We’re waiting for my son,” said a woman who declined to give her name. She stood among a knot of anxious onlookers and hid her red eyes behind large sunglasses.
“This shouldn’t have happened,” said Gabriele Magrini, 21, a physics student at L’Aquila University, who had been across town at a friend’s house when the quake struck. He said he had been waiting at the university since 4 a.m., adding: “We’ve only seen two people come out. We’re still waiting for 10.”
The worst hit seemed to be the city center in L’Aquila. The Italian Culture Ministry also reported damage to the steeple of the church of San Bernardino, a palazzo housing the state archives and parts of the 16th century castle that houses the National Museum of Abruzzo, which has been closed to the public.
But modern buildings in the outer part of the city were also affected. Residents wheeling dusty suitcases wandered through the streets as rescue workers sifted through the rubble. Electricity, phone and gas lines were also reported damaged.
In a letter to the archbishop of L’Aquila, the Vatican secretary of state, Tarcisio Bertone, wrote that Pope Benedict XVI was praying “for the victims, in particular for children.”
Speaking on Rainews 24, Guido Bertolaso, Italy’s top civil protection official said that the earthquake was “comparable if not superior to the one which struck Umbria in 1997.” That quake killed 10 people and damaged medieval buildings and churches across the region, including Assisi’s famed basilica.
Seismic activity is relatively common in Italy, but intensity like that of Monday’s quake is rare. The L’Aquila quake was the worst to hit Italy since 1980, when a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Eboli, south of Naples, leaving more than 2,700 people dead.
The last major quake to hit central Italy struck the south-central Molise region on Oct. 31, 2002, killing 28 people, including 27 children who died when their school collapsed.
Rachel Donadio reported from L’Aquila, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome.
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