Photos: Quake in Italy

[MiniMe]

Damn, I think the death toll is totally understated.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1889603,00.html


A car teeters on the edge of a street in the central Italian town of L'Aquila, which is 95km (60 miles) north-east of Rome


Firefighters and police sift through the wreckage of a house. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is in the city and declared a state of emergency, has promised a "record number of rescuers."


Rescuers carry a stretcher in the village of Onna. An unknown number of residents remain trapped beneath the rubble though it's thought around 1,500 people were injured.



Rubble from collapsed buildings fills the streets at the epicentre of the quake which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale. With many villages in the surrounding area still cut off by landslides, it is thought the full scale of the disaster will not become clear for some time.

[FightingIrish]

1. La Repubblica is reporting more than 100 dead

More photos at this link: http://www.repubblica.it/2006/05/gallerie/cronaca/onna-disastro/1.html

[paparush]

2. Italy muzzled scientist who foresaw quake

ROME, April 6 (Reuters) - An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L'Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.

The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome.

Vans with loudspeakers had driven around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor's anger.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L6566682.htm

[hedgehog]

3. Earthquakes don't kill people, human made structures falling down

during earthquakes kill people!


It's easier to pick up the pieces and bury the dead after a quake than to secure buildings beforehand. That's true world wide, not just in Italy!

[Xenotime]

4. Somebody should have warned these people about the quake.

[Arugula Latte]

5. Oh gawd ...Horrible ... My thoughts are with the good people of Italy.

[Trailrider1951]

6. Large earthquake + unreinforced masonry structures = not good for

survivability. My heart goes out to them.

:cry:

[applegrove]

7. Oh my god - how scary is that. And my sister and her family were just in Italy.

[bdamomma]

8. so sad, my heart goes out to Italian people what total devastation.