Italy - Earthquakes hit northern Italy
(31 May 2012) Authorities in northeast Italy have been setting up emergency camps in towns hit by May 20th's magnitude-6.0 earthquake, and its subsequent aftershocks. The magnitude-6.0 quake shook several small towns, killing four people, knocking down a clock tower and other centuries-old buildings and causing millions in losses to the region known for making Parmesan cheese. In the town of Finale Emilia, Civil Protection officials directed around a dozen volunteers setting up tents at a reception camp on a football pitch to accommodate hundreds of residents whose homes were damaged, or were to afraid to return home. "We are trying to make the citizens feel safe," Diego Gottarelli, a regional Civil Protection coordinator said. One woman said she just wanted her elderly parents to have shelter for the night. "We are going to sleep in the car, it is not a problem for us. The important thing is that they (Civil Protection authorities) finish setting up the camp so that my parents can go inside," she said. The quake struck at 4:04 a.m., with its epicentre about 35 kilometres (22 miles) north of Bologna at a relatively shallow depth of 5 kilometres (3.2 miles), the US Geological Survey said. A civil protection agency official described it as the worst quake to hit the region since the 1300s. The epicenter was between the towns of Finale Emilia, San Felice sul Panaro and Sermide, but the quake was felt as far away as Tuscany and northern Alto Adige. The four people killed were factory workers on the overnight shift when their buildings, in three separate locations, collapsed, agency chief Franco Gabrielli said. In addition, he said, two women died - apparently of heart attacks that may have been sparked by fear. Sky TG24 TV reported one of them was about 100 years old. Gabrielli said dozens of people were injured. The quake struck in the farm region known for production of Parmigiano and Grana cheeses. Italy's farm lobby Coldiretti said that some 200,000 huge, round cheeses were damaged, causing a loss to producers of 50 million (65 million US dollars). It also said in a statement that at least three barn roofs collapsed, trapping an unspecified number of pigs and milk cows inside. Nearly 12 hours after the quake, a sharp aftershock alarmed the residents of Sant'Agostino di Ferrara and knocked off part of a wall of city hall. The building already had been pummelled by the pre-dawn quake, which left a gaping hole on one side of it. The same aftershock knocked down most of the clock tower in Finale Emilia, injuring a firefighter and leaving only half the clock affixed. The national geophysics institute assigned an initial magnitude of 5.1 to the aftershock. The quake came as Italy was still reeling from Saturday's bombing that killed a 16-year-old girl at a school in the country's south. ** Aftershocks were still being felt in the Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy on May 23rd as Cultural Heritage officers assessed the damage to the many art works buried under the ruins of collapsed ancient historic buildings, three days after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake hit the region. Carla Di Francesco, the Regional Director of Architectural Heritage, which is in charge of evaluating the damage, is still overwhelmed by the number of affected structures. "We are going to need several months, for sure, because we made a rough calculation and there are more than 1,000 historic landmark buildings that have been hit by the quake," she said. Firefighters in Cento Ferrara helped the town save a precious painting from the church of Buonacompra, which collapsed during the quake. ** Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
