Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Dozens Dead as 6.2 Magnitude Earthquake Flattens Italian Towns

August 24,2016
A large, damaging 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck central Italy at 3:36 a.m. local time Wednesday morning (9:36 p.m. EDT Tuesday night), killing at least 120 people, many while they slept. The death toll is expected to rise as countless others are missing in the debris.
Much of the heart of Amatrice, a town of about 2,700 in the province of Rieti, Central Italy, had been reduced to rubble.
"The town isn't here anymore," Amatrice Mayor Sergio Pirozzi said.
(MORE: 6 Killed as Storms Pound British Coast)
Survivors wept in the streets and priests blessed the bodies of the victims pulled from the destruction.
"It was one of the most beautiful towns of Italy and now there's nothing left," a woman in Amatrice told the Associated Press. "I don't know what we'll do."
Rescuers arrived Wednesday morning in Amatrice and were combing through debris in the hopes of finding survivors.  One woman was pulled out of a collapsed building alive with her dog, the Associated Press reports. 
A few kilometers to the north in Illica, the response was slower as residents anxiously waited for loved ones to be extracted from the rubble.
"We came out to the piazza, and it looked like Dante's Inferno," said Agostino Severo, a visiting resident of Rome. "People crying for help, help. Rescue workers arrived after one hour ... one and a half hours."
Meanwhile, rescuers had rescued dozens alive from the rubble in the devastated town of Pescara del Tronto, to the north in the Marche region of central Italy. Italian news agencies had reported several deaths in the town.
(MORE: Tropical System May Threaten the U.S. Coast)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered his condolences to Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni for "the loss of life and devastation" caused by the earthquake in central Italy, AP reports.
Wednesday U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that Kerry has offered any U.S. assistance that Italy might require and made clear "the American people stand with Italians in this difficult time."
The tremor occurred at a depth of 6.2 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake's epicenter was 4.1 miles west-northwest of Accumoli, Italy, and a little more than 100 miles northeast of Rome. More than 30 aftershocks have been reported since the initial quake, seven of which were greater than 4 magnitude.
"Quakes with this magnitude at this depth in our territory in general create building collapses, which can result in deaths," said the head of Italy's civil protection service, Fabrizio Curcio.
Pescara del tronto

The U.S. State Department asked Americans visiting Italy to check in on social media and let loved ones know they're unharmed.
This is the largest earthquake to hit Italy since a 6.3 magnitude tremor hit the L'Aquila region on April 6, 2009. That earthquake was responsible for more than 300 deaths, according to Scientific American.
This is a developing story; please check back frequently for more information.

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