Gempa Bumi 6.3 richter di Italy; 294 died -

dexa

275 korban gempa di Itali

L'AQUILA - Jumlah kematian akibat gempa bumi di L'Aquila, Itali meningkat kepada 275 orang iaitu angka tertinggi dalam tempoh tiga dekad di negara berkenaan.

Seorang penyelaras penyelamat, Antonio Panaro berkata, mayat terakhir yang ditemui adalah di runtuhan bangunan empat tingkat.

Sekurang-kurangnya tujuh orang termasuk seorang dari Israel terbunuh dalam kejadian gempa bumi itu.

Bagaimanapun, di beberapa tempat, operasi menyelamat masih dilakukan kerana 10 orang masih hilang.

Sebelum ini satu gegaran susulan menyebabkan sejumlah penduduk di sekitar khemah perlindungan berasa bimbang.

Sebanyak 18,000 orang tinggal dalam khemah itu.

Sebagai tambahan, seramai 10,000 orang lagi mendapatkan perlindungan di hotel-hotel tepi pantai.

Presiden Itali, Giorgio Napolitano turut melawat kawasan gempa bumi.

Beliau turut melawat sebuah asrama yang runtuh di sini dan menemui mangsa-mangsa gempa bumi yang kehilangan rumah.

Gempa bumi itu berukuran 6.3 pada skala Richter dan berlaku pada Isnin lalu. - AP


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korban tu kalau nak kira ratio tak ramai --- tapi
kemusnahan quake ni -- bermillion million lira la nampaknya -

amazed

PM Itali hina mangsa gempa

MANGSA gempa dan sukarelawan menonton berita di televisyen di kawasan lapang di daerah Onna dekat wilayah Abruzzo, semalam.

Berlusconi minta penduduk anggap bercuti guna khemah bantuan

L'AQUILA: Perdana Menteri Itali, Silvio Berlusconi, kelmarin dianggap menghina penduduk yang hilang tempat tinggal kerana gempa bumi terburuk negara itu awal minggu ini supaya berfikir mereka umpama 'bercuti pada hujung minggu' dalam khemah yang diberikan.

"Mangsa tidak kekurangan apa-apa. Mereka mendapat rawatan, mempunyai makanan panas dan tempat berlindung pada waktu malam. Memang penempatan ini buat sementara saja tetapi mereka perlu anggap ia sebagai perkhemahan mingguan," katanya.


Kenyataan Berlusconi itu mendapat reaksi berbeza daripada penduduk di Bazzano, di luar L'Aquila. Pada masa sama, ulasannya membolehkan pembangkang meluahkan kemarahan.

Bekas senator parti Communist Refoundation, Rina Gagliardi, berkata: "Beliau memang tidak sensitif langsung dan menyangka kata-kata bernas boleh menyelesaikan semua masalah."

Luca Pesce, juruteknik berusia 40 tahun yang dapat melihat kediamannya dari khemah yang diduduki dengan tujuh saudara mara, berkata Berlusconi berkata begitu 'kerana tidak mengharungi apa yang kami lalui.'

Kenyataan beliau dikeluarkan pada hari angka kematian meningkat kepada 272 orang apabila lebih banyak mayat ditarik keluar dari runtuhan dan usaha diteruskan untuk mencari 15 lagi yang masih hilang.

Seorang anggota bomba dari daerah Pescara di pantai Adriatik yang datang membantu usaha menyelamat, tidak dapat menahan air mata selepas menemui mayat anak tiri perempuannya yang belajar di L'Aquila.

Majlis pengebumian besar-besaran mangsa dan hari berkabung kebangsaan dijadualkan hari ini. Pope turut mendoakan mangsa dan berkata beliau akan melawat zon bencana tidak lama lagi.

Berlusconi, yang menghabiskan hari ketiganya di kawasan itu, mengumumkan undang-undang tegas baru menangani kes kecurian ketika pegawai pertahanan awam memberi amaran pencuri memecah masuk rumah yang ditinggalkan di pinggir L'Aquila. � Agensi






kureng asam punya PM... yikessssss :@

dexa

Gempa: Mafia boleh jejas pembangunan semula

ROM 10 April - Ramai rakyat Itali bimbang rasuah dan kumpulan mafia boleh menjejaskan usaha untuk membangunkan semula wilayah Abruzzo yang dilanda gempa bumi pada Isnin lalu, walaupun Perdana Menteri, Silvio Berlusconi menjanjikan bantuan segera selepas malapetaka itu.

Kebimbangan itu berasas kerana selepas gempa bumi memusnahkan selatan Itali tiga dekad lalu, ramai mangsa masih tinggal di rumah perlindungan sementara, setelah kumpulan mafia dan puak-puak politik didakwa menggelapkan bantuan berjumlah berbilion-bilion euro.

Pembangunan semula selepas gempa bumi Irpinia pada 1980 yang mengakibatkan 2,800 maut dan 200,000 lagi hilang tempat tinggal disebut sebagai kes terburuk penyalahgunaan wang kerajaan dan rasuah politik di Itali selepas perang.

Sementara itu, lebih 280 orang terkorban dan 28,000 lagi hilang tempat tinggal dalam gempa bumi di wilayah Abruzzo, tengah Itali pada Isnin lepas.

Kerajaan Itali mengadakan upacara pengebumian rasmi hari ini bagi mangsa gempa bumi tersebut, di L'Aquila, bandar yang mengalami kemusnahan paling teruk akibat gegaran berukuran 6.3 magnitud itu.

Abruzzo terletak berhampiran kubu kuat kumpulan-kumpulan mafia seperti Camorra dan mempunyai sejarah kes-kes rasuah melibatkan pegawai kanan kerajaan.

Kerajaan Berlusconi perlu memastikan ketelusan kerana dana pembangunan semula berjumlah berbilion-bilion euro dijangka mencurah masuk.

"Kita boleh berasa yakin kumpulan jenayah terancang akan cuba membolot sebahagian daripada wang itu.

"Abruzzo cukup hampir dengan pusat kekuasaan Camorra untuk menjadikannya sasaran yang menarik," kata James Walston dari Universiti Amerika di Rom.

Rakyat Itali sudah biasa dijanjikan bantuan pembangunan semula tetapi kemudian melihat dana bencana digelapkan oleh pegawai yang korup dan mafia.

"Saya bimbang selepas liputan media beransur-ansur luput, ahli politik akan melupakan janji mereka dan kami akan dibiarkan bersendirian.

"Saya khuatir saya akan menghabiskan seluruh kehidupan saya di dalam khemah," kata seorang mangsa gempa bumi Stefania Cantalini yang kini hamil lapan bulan, di sebuah kem di L'Aquila. - Reuters

amazed

Hopes dim in search for survivors of Italian quake

By Silvia Aloisi

L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - Italy prepared to end the search for survivors of its worst earthquake for three decades, which killed at least 293 people and made nearly 40,000 homeless.

A fire department rescue crew member and his dog search through the rubble of a building which collapsed after an earthquake in L'Aquila April 11, 2009. (REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)

A fire department spokesman said rescuers might call off the operation on Saturday night or Sunday after a search beneath the ruins of a four-storey building in the mountain city of L'Aquila failed to turn up anyone alive.

"We said from the start hopes were very slight and unfortunately it looks like we won't find anything," he said.

No survivors from Monday's 6.3-magnitude quake have been pulled from the rubble since Tuesday, and rescue efforts had not been expected to continue beyond the weekend.

Violent aftershocks continued to shake Italy's central Abruzzo region overnight and into the morning, terrifying survivors a day after a state funeral for the dead.

The youngest quake victim was a five-month-old boy, killed with his mother.

With Easter around the corner, the thousands of people made homeless by the earthquake tried to find some normalcy in tents and borrowed quarters.

TENT CHAPELS

At the main tent city, where some 2,000 survivors are sheltering, makeshift chapels with Bibles and rosaries were set up in plastic tents for people to pray and an Easter mass will be celebrated on Sunday.

"I always used to go to church, and tomorrow I'll do the same," said 75-year-old Carmelina Ciocca, tears in her eyes. "It will help me feel a bit better after all this devastation."

Residents pleaded with security forces at roadblocks to let them recover personal effects from their crumbling houses.
"I just want to get some clothes, I've been wearing this tracksuit for five days now," said Melina Giandomenico, who used to live in a central street in L'Aquila where three more bodies were unearthed on Saturday.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said around 24,000 of the homeless were living in emergency camps and 15,000 had been given shelter in hotels or private homes.

The billionaire media mogul, has offered to put up homeless people at three of his own properties.

Attention is starting to turn to the reconstruction of a region that relies on tourism, farming and family firms. More than half the companies in the Abruzzo region are out of action.

One estimate put the damage at up to 3 billion euros ($4 billion), but its impact on Italy's economy, which is worth nearly 2 trillion euros a year and is already mired in recession, is expected to be limited.

dexa

Sunday April 12, 2009
Italy quake survivors celebrate bitter Easter
By Silvia Aloisi

L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - Thousands of people made homeless by Italy's deadliest earthquake in 30 years celebrated a sombre Easter on Sunday, huddling for mass at makeshift chapels set up in tent cities and emergency shelters.


A member of the Italian Alpine troops attends Easter mass
in a tent camp where earthquake victims are sheltering in
Paganica April 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico)

Six days after disaster struck the central city of L'Aquila and 26 surrounding towns, killing 294 people, survivors prayed for the dead and sought comfort in religion to help them rebuild shattered lives.

"It's Easter for us too, despite the tragedy and the rubble of the earthquake," L'Aquila archbishop Giuseppe Molinari told hundreds of faithful gathered for mass under a plastic tent at the main homeless camp outside the devastated city centre.

"The resurrection of Christ is also the resurrection of L'Aquila," he said as people struggled to hold back tears.

Some 40,000 people lost their homes in the 6.3 magnitude quake, which hit the Abruzzo region in the early hours of Monday, catching residents in their sleep.

L'Aquila, a medieval city of 68,000, bore the brunt of the disaster and many of its buildings and centuries-old churches crumbled to the ground.

Rescue efforts virtually ended when exhausted firemen stopped searching for a possible survivor in a collapsed four-storey building on Saturday evening and said all missing people had been accounted for.

Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken the area since the quake, hampering rescue operations and terrifying residents.

EGGS FOR THE CHILDREN

In his Easter message, Pope Benedict urged survivors not to lose hope. He plans to visit the stricken zone soon.

In the 32 tent cities hosting some 18,000 homeless, priests offered communion wafers at makeshift altars and aid workers distributed brightly wrapped chocolate Easter eggs to cheer up children and their distraught families.

"Today my heart is heavy as I think about all these dead people but we must not give up hope," said Anna Lucantonio, 65, clutching a rosary in a canvas-chapel at the main L'Aquila camp.

"This rosary, a statue of the Virgin Mary and sacred water I got from my pilgrimage to Lourdes is all I took with me as the house crumbled around us. I thought that was all I really needed," she said.

Outside the tent, children played football and the bells of a surviving church could be heard in the background.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has vowed to rebuild L'Aquila in 28 months and promised his government would not abandon the people of Abruzzo, attended mass at a police academy where a state funeral for the dead was held on Friday.

"We'll do everything possible to get people out of the tents in the shortest possible time and give them a comfortable accomodation," he said on Sunday.

But in the camps, the mood was grim.

"For how long do we have to stay here? It's horrible when you can't go back home," said 86-year old Lidia Placidi, sitting outside her blue tent with two dogs her family managed to rescue.

Annachiara Gaudieri, another woman sheltering at the L'Aquila tent city, said she could not bear to go back to live in her house, even if it was possible to repair it.

"L'Aquila was known for its ancient churches and for being a university city. Now the churches have gone, and so many students were killed. There were 20,000 of them here, and those who survived have all left. It will never be the same."

Prosecutors are investigating why so many modern buildings were flattened by the quake and whether flawed construction materials were to blame for the high death toll in an area known for its seismic risk.