WITH THE discovery of a further four bodies in a student hostel in L’Aquila yesterday afternoon, the death toll in the earthquake which struck the Abruzzo region in central Italy on Monday morning has now risen to 211.
As rescue workers prepared for their second night of searching through the rubble, many of them acknowledged that there was very little chance of finding any more survivors.
With 15 people unaccounted for, the death toll seems destined to rise further. There was some reprieve last night, when a woman was pulled alive from the rubble after 42 hours. Earlier in the day, a 98-year-old grandmother was rescued.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who visited the area for the second time in two days, said the search for survivors would go on for another 48 hours.
He summed up the grim situation, saying the government estimated that 17,000 people had been left homeless by the earthquake, which registered 5.8 on the Richter scale.
Remarkably, 150 people have been dug out of the wreckage over the past two days. A further 1,000 people were seriously injured by the original Monday morning quake.
For those who lived to tell the tale, there is the psychological scarring of disaster trauma. Many survivors continue to be traumatised by the series of after-tremors that have hit the region.
With in excess of 200 “after-tremors” since Monday morning, some of them measuring over five on the Richter scale, many survivors chose to spend last night in their cars or indeed in the open for fear of falling buildings.
Some 7,000 tents have been set up by the Protezione Civile (Civil Protection) in 20 tented villages in and around L’Aquila.
Mr Berlusconi invited the homeless survivors to “go and spend Easter on the coast”, adding that the government will be paying for them. The prime minister was referring to the fact that the Protezione Civile has been offered some 4,000 hotel rooms (approximately 8,000-10,000 beds) on the Adriatic at reduced rates.
Mr Berlusconi also warned that for those whose houses are still standing, it may be some time before they would be allowed to return to their homes.
He said that, starting from today, some 1,500 engineers would begin examining “room by room” the thousands of houses damaged in the quake.
Earlier, the prime minister said that Italy had no need of the worldwide help being offered to deal with this latest Italian natural disaster.
Later, after he had spoken on the phone with US president Barack Obama, he changed tack slightly, saying: “If the USA wants to help us out with our churches and other protected buildings, then we would be delighted with such a show of support.”
Abruzzo, however, has been the recipient of nationwide solidarity.
No fewer than 7,000 volunteer workers from all over Italy have travelled to help with the rescue effort. And in supermarkets all over the country, Italians have been buying food supplies to offer as donations to the 17,000 homeless. Milan’s famous La Scala opera house donated the box office takings of last night’s production of Journey to Rheims to the earthquake victims.