Italy begins to bury earthquake dead
Print Edition
BULLDOZERS and other heavy equipment clanked down the streets of Italy’s quake-devastated town of Amatrice yesterday, pulling down dangerously overhanging ledges and clearing rubble as investigators tried to figure out if negligence in enforcing building codes added to the high death toll.
Italy’s state museums, meanwhile, embarked on a fundraising campaign, donating their day’s proceeds to relief and reconstruction efforts.
In addition to killing at least 291 people and injuring hundreds of others, last Wednesday’s 6.2-magnitude quake flattened three medieval towns in central Italy, destroying not only private homes but also churches and other centuries-old cultural treasures.
Culture Minster Dario Franceschini appealed to Italians to “go to museums in a sign of solidarity with people affected by the earthquake.”
It was one of several efforts that have sprung up to help the towns rebuild — restaurants in Italy and elsewhere are also serving up pasta Amatriciana, the region’s most famous dish, in another fundraising effort.
Amatrice bore the brunt of destruction with 230 fatalities and a town turned to rubble. Eleven others died in nearby Accumoli and 50 more in Arquata del Tronto, 116 kilometers to the north.
Yesterday was relatively calm, the first since the quake struck without strong aftershocks. In all, the region has seen 1,820 aftershocks, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
On Saturday, mourners prayed, hugged, wept and even applauded as coffins carrying earthquake victims passed by at a state funeral in Ascoli Piceno.
The caskets of 35 people had been brought to a community gym — one of the few structures in the area still intact. Local bishop Giovanni D’Ercole celebrated Mass beneath a crucifix he had retrieved from one of the damaged churches.
Emotions that had been dammed up for days broke in a crescendo of grief. One young man wept over a little girl’s white coffin. Another woman gently stroked another small casket. Many mourners were recovering from injuries themselves, some wrapped in bandages. Everywhere people knelt at coffins, tears running down their cheeks, their arms around loved ones.
“It is a great tragedy. There are no words to describe it,” said resident Gina Razzetti. “Each one of us has our pain inside. We are thinking about the families who lost relatives, who lost their homes, who lost everything.”
As all of Italy observed a day of national mourning, Bishop D’Ercole urged residents to rebuild their communities.
“Don’t be afraid to cry out your suffering — I have seen a lot of this — but please do not lose courage,” D’Ercole said. “Only together can we rebuild our houses and our churches.”
Nobody has been found alive in the ruins since Wednesday, and hopes have vanished of finding any more survivors. The number still missing is uncertain, due to the many visitors seeking a last taste of summer in the Apennine mountains.
“The melancholy grabs on to your heart. You feel a sense of weakness, of depression,” said Fiore Ciotto, another Ascoli Piceno resident.
President Sergio Mattarella arrived by helicopter on Saturday and was shown the extent of the damage in Amatrice.
Saturday’s funeral involved most of the dead from Arquata del Tronto. As deep as their anguish was, the mourners at least had bodies to bury. Many of the dead from Amatrice are now awaiting identification in a refrigerated morgue in an airport hangar in Rieti, the provincial capital 65 kilometers away.
Tomorrow, a memorial service — without the bodies — will be held for the dead of Amatrice on the battered town’s outskirts.
Hundreds of people have been left homeless by the quake, with many spending their nights in tent cities and a gym in Amatrice, where volunteers are working to provide basic services.
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