province of Aquila hit by earthquake

[adriatica]

3.32 this morning an earthquake of 5.8 hit the province centered just outside the capital at Paganica

there has been major damage to buildings and there are fears of people being trapped ...

the main road from L'Aquila to rome has been closed

reports say that there are 15,000 homes without electric...

people are being told to avoid using the roads into the area so as to leave routes free for emergencey vehicles

according to the seismic geologists after a quake of this size there will be several lesser ones over the coming hours and days...


other bad areas mentioned are Villagrande and Collimento...

hopefully early reports will not be proved too far off as regards injuries although the situation at the moment is very unclear with reports of one of the university buildings having collapsed....

its a bad night for L'Aquila and when daylight arrives hopefully it will not be worse news...

if anyone is reading this thread for the first time please either donate through this link

Justgiving - ITALY Magazine Abruzzo Earthquake Appeal

or if you have evere been upset by a member called julian on this site make her pay too ... http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/gen...ke-me-pay.html

she has promised to give £1 for every grazie she receives... better in my opinion to do both... because there are peopele that need this now

[adriatica]

it seems now that thre are victims...reports coming in of two at fossa... and they are carrying images on Rai 3 of L'Aquila... covered in dust and many buildings damaged.... and that although the biggest population centre was not at the earthquake centre...

[adriatica]

for those of us with children here its just been announced that all schools in abruzzo are closed today...presume they have to do safety checks...

the breaking news of four young children being found dead in a building i think is just the start of a tragic day///

reports also suggest that the actual size of the quake at the epicentre measured between 8 and 9 ... and in the city of Aquila at the moment they are getting tremors everything ten minutes or so... people reporting from there are in tears as they have been under a strain since last year with frequent tremors with some people having been sleeping in their cars as fears grew that something bad was going to arrive..

anyway this seems to be a pretty devastating event.... and am sure that it will be reported widely so news will be on all the major channels...

anyone travelling here via rome is going to have a hard trip as they have closed the whole motorway again to check bridges and tunnels... for now Abruzzo is cut off from that side of the country

the main road through the gran sasso tunnel has been shut

telephone lines into the area are down so don't worry if you have to call someone its a widespread cut... and a lack of response or news could well be due to this rather than any problem with the person you wish to contact.... should imagine that even some mobile systems will be out as well..

a disaster of this magnitude is going to take a while to get to grips with and news on a personal level might well be hard to arrive at... many will be unable to get to communicate that they are safe... so better to hope that all is well and that its just part of the widespread telecommunication problems...

[Vigneverde]

Our sincere thoughts to anyone affected, please God keep them safe.

[Gala Placidia]

Terrible news, particularly as we do not know how many victims there are although we do know about the four children. The TV coverage was saying that it was 5.8 on Richter's scale but the damage could suggest a stronger earthquake. Our thoughts and prayers go to all those in the area.

[adriatica]

for anyone willing or interested in practicalities of helping here there are appeals for blood donations ...

this actually is not just in abruzzo... as the hospital in L'Aquila is one of the buildings that has closed patients are having to be flown off to areas as far afield as rome...

anyway there is a national system here so blood given anywhere in Italy will help

as for the quake... well here in Teramo it was no worse than being on a ship in a storm...in fact a lot less... just 20 seconds and all done...the aftershocks hardly felt at all... however it was obvious that something big had occured and the history of recent days... even one geologist going against all his colleagues and even predicting this was going to be a big one soon... then being accused of raing the level of panic ... just maybe help to save a few lives as some people living in the area had been sleeping in cars

... worse hit areas outside of the immediate area have been those areas of Lazio that border L'Aquila , in Sora there have been casualties and building problems .. and Rome has had an apartment building evacuated ..

[myabruzzohome]

Thanks for these updates .The forum is really helping to keep those of us in the UK up to date with events.

What a sad day.

[adriatica]

just watched an interview with the committee chairperson of the campobasso / molise earthquake where the school was destroyed in 2002 ... that earthquake stretched into the far south of Abruzzo...

recentley although condemened on appeal the people that constructed the new school including the mayor and architect basically got away with ignoring building regs

the mans point is that in L'Aquila apart from the older properties that have been destroyed once again it is children that have suffered dramatically in what is a ,major quake which in other areas of the world would have resulted in far fewer victims ... that once again public buildings...eg the new hospital of Aquila have proved to have structural faults and basically if ever caught in an earthquake in Italy make sure you escape quickly from any public structure...or church...which appear exempt from rules regarding structural integrity...

as the death toll rises... now 50 ... and counting... and the injured have to be ferried out of the area because a new hospital is unsafe anger is building against local public administrations here that would rather line their own pockets than build safe buildings....

highly relevant accusations as the old regional administration of Abruzzo was recently sacked due to taking funds from the health system ... hopefully the new president of the region ... will continue to prove a more honest choice than those of the past... although he has to fight against a mass of corruption in each of the provincial governments here down to the local comunes... and their habits of taking our tax and passing it onto their friends...

once again its people that have proved the heroes working in dangerous wreckage with bare hands to pull people free ... and the emergencey services have struggled hard since early morning... many of the deaths result from suffocation from the dust caused by the collapsing buildings... and the towns are covered in this fine dust

latest news about the road closure is that they are hoping to open the A24 roma / l'aquila tomorrow

[Sally Donaldson]

I have just heard the awful news. I have friends in Bugnara, near Sulmona, who I rang yesterday. I cannot now get through to them.

[Ancient Properties]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Paola and I own Ancient Properties. We are in the province of Chieti. We felt the shake but fortunately it ended there.
My agency, besides selling properties, is involved in renovations and our staff is composed of certified engineer, geologist and architect. I would be most happy to help anyone in need. Please feel free to email me even for just suggestions and I will do my best to help.
I will also have a meeting with the staff this afternoon because I am thinking to do some probono work in the area. If anyone wants to join me, please contact me.