It seems that they are starting to give up hope of
finding many more survivors.

Love and prayers for the survivors are truly greatly
appreciated.

Blessings,
Breeze

I wish them well.

They will rebuild…hopefully, safer, stabler buildings this time. Sadly, the relics are gone.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/CultureAndMedia/?id=3.0.3191807635

Good thing we are no longer in a “War” with these misunderstood creatures.

I hope the American government sends personnel and whatever aide is needed to Italy. I understand the Pope is planning a visit to show solidarity and give spiritual support.

Our prayers go out! Stay safe.

Thank you.

Corriere della Sera – Aprile 2009

An appeal on behalf of communities affected by the Abruzzo earthquake, was launched within hours of the disaster by the

Corriere della Sera, Corriere.it, the Gazzetta dello Sport, Gazzetta.it and City.

WHAT TO DO

– Anyone wishing to make a donation to help victims in the earthquake zone can do so by bank transfer or by credit card.

BANK TRANSFER:

Intesa-San Paolo, ABI 3069, CAB 05061, account number 1000/144, account name: “Un aiuto subito – Terremoto dell’Abruzzo”. IBAN: IT 03 B 03069 05061 100000000144

CREDIT CARD DONATIONS

(CartaSi, MasterCard, Visa, American Express) CartaSi Freephone: 800 317800 (from some mobiles, dial 12 followed by the number)

Calls from abroad:

+39 02 34980235.

Have your credit card ready and follow the recorded instructions.

Thank you.

April 8, 2009
Vanessa Gera,
Associated Press Writer
L’AQUILA, Italy

– Premier Silvio Berlusconi says the death toll in the earthquake that hit central Italy has reached 260.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday in the devastated mountain town of L’Aquila, Berlusconi said the dead included 16 children, while nine bodies still had to be identified.

Berlusconi said that L’Aquila Bishop Giuseppe Molinari would hold a funeral service for the victims on Friday.

The premier said some 17,700 people left homeless by the quake that struck Monday had found shelter in tent camps set up by authorities. Another 10,000 people were housed in hotels along the coast, bringing the overall number of homeless to almost 28,000.

Aftershocks from the earthquake sent new fears through the tent camps that shelter thousands of survivors, and Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday that he would visit the shocked and injured people of the area as soon as possible.

As rescue teams pressed ahead with their searches in the crumbled buildings, the homeless emerged from tents after spending a second night in chilly mountain temperatures.

“I slept so badly because I kept feeling the aftershocks,” said Daniela Nunut at one of the tent camps set up across the city of L’Aquila. The 46-year Romanian-born woman said she and her companion plan to stay in the tent for now. “What can you do? You can’t go into the building.”

The magnitude-6.3 quake hit L’Aquila and several towns in central Italy early Monday, leveling buildings and reducing entire blocks to piles of rubble and dust.

The pope praised the relief operations as an example of how solidarity can help overcome “even the most painful trials.”

“As soon as possible I hope to visit you,” Benedict said Wednesday at the Vatican.

The Vatican said he would make the trip after Easter Sunday and that he does not want to interfere with relief operations.

The Civil Protection agency said 250 people have died, including 11 who have not been identified. Their funeral was scheduled to be held on Good Friday, regional officials said, although at least one victim’s funeral was going to be held Wednesday in one of the small villages in the stricken area.

Fifteen people remain missing, officials said.

The ANSA news agency reported that four students trapped in the rubble of a dormitory of the University of L’Aquila had died.

By Tuesday evening, rescue crews gave up painstakingly removing debris from the dormitory by hand and brought in huge pincers that pulled off parts of the roof, balconies and walls, showering debris down.

“Unless there is a miracle, I’ve been told (by rescuers) that they probably are dead,” university rector Ferdinando Di Orio said.

Since the quake early Monday, some 430 aftershocks have rumbled through, including some strong ones, said Marco Olivieri of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome.

A strong aftershock at 7:47 p.m. Tuesday rained debris on screaming residents and rescue crews, who ran from the site.

Many survivors at the camp said they had been cold during the night as heaters in some of the tents were not working. Some read a newspaper as they lined up for hot coffee or tea and a croissant.

To shelter the homeless against the chilly nights in the mountains, about 20 tent cities have sprouted in open spaces around L’Aquila and surrounding towns. Field kitchens, medical supplies — and clowns with bubbles to entertain traumatized children — were brought in.

Officials estimated Monday that 50,000 people had been left homeless by the quake. By Tuesday evening, that number was lowered to between 17,000 and 25,000, because many moved in with friends or relatives.

Rescue workers continuing their search still held out hope to find somebody alive. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the rescue efforts would likely continue until Easter Sunday, beyond the period originally indicated by Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

“It all depends on the conditions, if the person under the rubble has any air or water,” Cristian Martinez, from the Spanish rescue organization Unidad Canina, said as his dogs ran across a pile of rubble that had once been a four-story building in L’Aquila.

Martinez explained that his dogs, which have been sent across the world after quakes and other catastrophes, “would bark if they found a live body and would start digging if they found a dead body.”

So far, the dogs had found no signs of any living human beings in the debris.

“But we don’t give up hope,” said Martinez, adding that his dogs had once found somebody alive 11 days after a quake in Pakistan.

On Tuesday, rescue officials pulled a young woman alive from a collapsed building about 42 hours after the main quake struck the mountainous region.

Eleonora Calesini, a 20-year-old student, was found alive in the ruins of the five-story building in central L’Aquila.

Officials said some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed in the 26 cities, towns and villages around L’Aquila, a city of 70,000 that is the regional capital of Abruzzo.

Teams started inspecting some buildings still standing Wednesday, including an 18th-century church in downtown L’Aquila, which had been damaged in the quake. Teams are also scheduled to begin surveying houses to see if residents can move back in.

___

Associated Press Writer Alessandra Rizzo in Rome contributed to this report.

Though not a major tourist destination like Rome, Venice or Florence, L’Aquila boasts ancient fortifications and tombs of saints.

Many Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance landmarks were damaged, including part of the red-and-white stone basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio.

The fact that the town was not heavily touristed is what I found so charming. The beautiful architecture from the different periods was just icing on the cake. This is a tragedy on so many levels.

Corriere della Sera – Aprile 2009

An appeal on behalf of communities affected by the Abruzzo earthquake, was launched within hours of the disaster by the

Corriere della Sera, Corriere.it, the Gazzetta dello Sport, Gazzetta.it and City.

WHAT TO DO

– Anyone wishing to make a donation to help victims in the earthquake zone can do so by bank transfer or by credit card.

BANK TRANSFER:

Intesa-San Paolo, ABI 3069, CAB 05061, account number 1000/144, account name: “Un aiuto subito – Terremoto dell’Abruzzo”. IBAN: IT 03 B 03069 05061 100000000144

CREDIT CARD DONATIONS

(CartaSi, MasterCard, Visa, American Express) CartaSi Freephone: 800 317800 (from some mobiles, dial 12 followed by the number)

Calls from abroad:

+39 02 34980235.

Have your credit card ready and follow the recorded instructions.

(ANSA) –
Rome,
April 7 –

Monday’s earthquake in the central region of Abruzzo was in part due to the fact that Italy is getting wider, a French expert said on Tuesday.

”Italy is getting wider by one millimeter a year and this is putting pressure on fault lines along the Apennine mountain chain,” seismologist Pascal Bernard said in an interview published in the French daily Liberation.

Italy’s greatest ‘hope’, he said, was that along the mountain chain there was not one or two major fault lines but ”a series of faults of no longer than 15km each maximum which are in some way interconnected”.

Bernard explained he used the term ‘hope’ because ”the magnitude of a quake is directly linked with the length of a fault when it slips. When the faults are longer than 1000km and up to 1,000km their can provoke ‘titanic’ earthquakes”. Bernard is employed at the Institute du Physique du Globe in Paris.

MONITORING BOOSTED ALONG MAIN APENNINE FAULT LINE.

Italy’s National Geophysics and Vulcanology Institute (INGV) is boosting the number of monitoring devices it has along the Apennine fault line believed to have caused the Monday’s earthquake.

”Today we expect to install another dozen or so devices, in addition to the ones we put in yesterday, to better monitor the aftershocks in relation to their time and magnitude,” INGV seismologist Claudio Chiarabba said on Tuesday.

”We will continue to install them over the coming days until we have up to 40 in place. These stations will allow us to monitor the full length of the fault and get a detailed map of its evolution,” he added. The monitoring stations will remain in place for as long as the seismic activity continues, probably for a month to a month and a half, Chiarabbia said. According to the INGV expert, while it is not easy to define the ‘geometry’ of a fault, it is important to do so because its characteristics, when compared to data from other earthquakes, will be useful in the future when trying to predict quakes.

(ANSA) –
L’Aquila,
April 7

- Aftershocks on Tuesday continued to cause panic in the Abruzzo capital L’Aquila and neighbouring towns more than 32 hours after an earthquake that has left at least 179 dead.

Two strong quakes, one registering 4.7 on the MMS scale and lasting for around a minute, shook buildings at 11:27 Tuesday (09:27 GMT) and resulted in shaky plaster and cornices collapsing in L’Aquila.

The aftershocks caused panic among survivors who had spent the night in their cars outside their homes, many of whom fled away from the buildings fearing further collapse.

Seismologist Francesco Mele of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) said there had been around 280 aftershocks since the main quake struck at 03:33 local time (01:33 GMT) on Monday, registering 6.2 on the scale.

The most violent aftershock, of 4.8 magnitude, occurred at 01:15 Tuesday (23:15 GMT Monday).

Mele said the INGV was setting up six new monitoring stations a few kilometres from the fault line in the area, while four more would be installed later on Tuesday.

April 7, 2009
Yahoo News
L’AQUILA,
Italy

– The death toll from Italy’s worst earthquake in three decades jumped to 207 on Tuesday as rescuers dug desperately through collapsed buildings looking for a dwindling number of missing.

A strong aftershock sent emergency workers scurrying from a partially collapsed university dormitory — a reminder of the continued danger in the quake zone.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi surveyed the devastated region by helicopter and said the rescue efforts would continue for two more days — after which any of the trapped would have little chance of survival.

He said 15 people were still missing.

“The rescue efforts will continue for another 48 hours from today until it is certain that there is no one else alive,” Berlusconi told reporters.

The magnitide-6.3 quake struck the central Italian city of L’Aquila and surrounding villages early Monday, leveling buildings and reducing entire blocks to a pile of rubble and dust.

Rescuers worked overnight inside the four-story dormitory and pulled two bodies from the rubble. They ran out, appearing confused, when the 4.9-magnitude aftershock hit at 11:26 a.m.

As many as four students could still be inside the dormitory, Berlusconi said.

Berlusconi said that at least 100 of the roughly 1,000 injured people were in serious condition. He said 190 of the victims had been identified.

Emergency workers were hunting for others pinned under rubble elsewhere in L’Aquila, a historic city of some 70,000 people.

There have been a series of aftershocks since the quake early Monday, which also left tens of thousands homeless. Tuesday’s aftershock appeared strongest in L’Aquila, a city of Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architectural treasures in a valley surrounded by the snowcapped Apennine mountains.

Two buildings in Pettino, a suburb of L’Aquila, collapsed following the aftershock, the news agency ANSA reported, citing fire officials. No one was believed to be inside either building.

The ground shook in the nearly leveled town of Onna, about six miles (10 kilometers) away, but caused no panic.

While the elderly, children and pregnant women were given priority at tent cities in the area, others were sleeping in cars or making their own arrangements to stay with relatives or in second homes out of the quake zone.