Quake Toll in Italy Rises to at Least 235

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040703700.html

2 Found Alive as Aftershocks Continue

Italy Struggles With Earthquake Aftermath
Rescue workers combed central Italy for survivors of Monday's earthquake while the death toll continued to rise. Tent camps housed some of the 50,000 left homeless by Italy's worst earthquake in three decades.

By Steve Scherer and Flavia Krause-Jackson
Bloomberg
Wednesday, April 8, 2009; Page A07

ONNA, Italy, April 7 -- The death toll in Italy's deadliest earthquake in almost three decades exceeded 200 as aftershocks continued to rattle the region.


Quake Toll in Italy Rises to at Least 235

Monday's quake in the province of L'Aquila, about 60 miles northeast of Rome, left at least 235 people dead, with 15 still missing, officials said. One thousand people were injured, 100 of them seriously.

A 98-year-old grandmother was found alive Tuesday after being buried for 30 hours. A young girl was pulled alive from rubble after 42 hours, according to the ANSA news agency. Four students were found dead in the rubble of a collapsed dormitory building, Sky TG24 television reported.

The government said Monday night that reconstruction will cost about 1.2 billion euros, or almost $1.6 billion. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the cost would be "several billion euros."

"We have the resources needed for reconstruction, including European funds, and we need to move quickly to avoid the problems of wasteful or slow spending that we've seen in past interventions," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said.

About 100 people have been pulled from the wreckage, and Berlusconi said rescue efforts would continue for 48 more hours.

In the hard-hit town of Onna, east of L'Aquila city, Daniele Brunetto, 64, was rescued from his balcony by neighbors, along with his dog Tyson, named after the American boxer Mike Tyson. Brunetto said he was born in New Jersey and moved to Italy 30 years ago. Brunetto, his T-shirt crusted with dried blood, his head bandaged where he had been struck by falling plaster and concrete, choked back tears and called himself lucky.

[seemslikeadream]

1. Seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani toured the medieval mountain town in van with loudspeakers warning

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1167891/Italian-quake-death-toll-rises-150-emerges-scientist-warned-residents-flee-week-ago.html







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


Source: Reuters
By Gavin Jones

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.

Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

Italy's Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L'Aquila on March 31 to reassure the townspeople.