Deadly Italian Earthquake

Date: 4/6/2009

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE53506120090406?sp=true

Source: FOXNews

Main Points:

1. A powerful earthquake struck central Italy as residents slept on Monday morning, killing more than 90 people and making up to 50,000 homeless.

2. "Some towns in the area have been virtually destroyed in their entirety," a somber Gianfranco Fini, speaker of the lower house of parliament, said before the chamber observed a moment of silence.

3. The Italian news agency Ansa, quoting rescue workers, said the death toll had reached 92 nearly 12 hours after the quake struck.

4. Houses, historic churches and other buildings were demolished in the worst quake to hit Italy in nearly 30 years. Hundreds of people were injured and some 15,000 buildings declared off limits.

5. Luca Spoletini, a Civil Protection Department spokesman, said the quake may have made up to 50,000 people homeless. Some 26 cities and towns were seriously damaged.

6. Older houses and buildings made of stone, particularly in outlying villages that have not seen much restoration, collapsed like straw houses.

7. Residents of Rome, which is rarely hit by seismic activity, were woken by the quake, which rattled furniture and swayed lights in most of central Italy. It struck shortly after 3:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) and registered between 5.8 and 6.3 magnitudes.

8. Rubble was strewn throughout the city of 68,000 people and nearby towns, blocking roads and hampering rescue teams. Old women wailed and residents armed with nothing but bare hands helped firefighters and rescue workers tear through the rubble

9. "Thousands of buildings collapsed or were damaged," said Agostino Miozzo, a Civil Protection official.

10. There were numerous reports of some of the area's centuries-old Romanesque and Renaissance churches collapsing.

11. Weeks before the disaster, an Italian scientist had predicted a major quake around L'Aquila, based on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas.

12. Seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet. Italy's Civil Protection Agency reassured locals at the end of March that tremors being felt were "absolutely normal" for a seismic area.