Survivors of Italian quake take stock of loved ones and property lost
At least 250 killed in Wednesday's magnitude 6.2 quake
Survivors in the small hilltop towns and villages in central Italy devastated by Wednesday's earthquake are beginning to take stock of the loss.
The death toll stood at 250 Thursday as emergency workers continued to use sniffer dogs, shovels, ropes and heavy equipment to try to find and extricate survivors.
Many of the dead were children, who were in the region for the summer break to enjoy the fresh air and spectacular views of Italy's forested Apennine mountain range.
In one fate-defying exercise, rescuers were able to pull a 10-year-old girl from a mountain of stones and debris in Pescara del Tronto, one of the towns hardest hit by the magnitude 6.2 quake. Video from Italian broadcaster Sky 24, captured onlookers bursting into joyous screams of "She's alive!" after rescuers pulled her from the rubble.
But others were less fortunate.
Two neighbours from the town of Accumoli, now largely reduced to rubble, exchanged news of relatives lost in the quake on their way back into town to collect any useful belongings that withstood the earthquake.
As they headed up to the hilltop town, Ornella Campagnoni, in her 70s, bursts into tears as she told her friend Roberta Paoloni, 53, that her brother and his grandson were killed in the quake when it pulled to the ground most of the buildings in town.
"He was just seven, though he seemed like he was 12 because he was so tall," she said between sobs. "Next year, he was going into his second year of elementary school. He's a twin, and now, I'm trying to find his brother, Simone, who is somewhere in a hospital. He was badly injured. They say they took him to Rome, but we can't find him."
"What about Catarina and Sabrina?" asked Paoloni.
"They're dead, too!" Campagnoni said.
"Even Sabrina? She was my next-door neighbour!" Paoloni said.
"Even Sabrina!" Campagnoni replied.
People vie for space in temporary tent camps
Hundreds of variations on these heartbreaking conversations are playing out in the stricken area as survivors begin to register with authorities for a spot in one of the roadside fields cleared to erect temporary tent camps for the newly homeless.
In the valley below Accumoli, four such areas have already been set up, providing shelter for around 300 people, said Juri Pittaluga, spokesperson for Italy's Civil Protection Agency.
Firefighters in Accumoli, in the meantime, were helping those wanting to be accompanied into collapsed homes to retrieve valuables.
Raul Durante, 60, carried a small, empty suitcase with him to the apartment of his parents, both in their 90s, who survived the quake.
As he stepped through the broken bottles, smashed pottery and hunks of cement that had fallen from the walls and ceiling, he said he doubted his parents would ever live in the house again.
"This is a family home, where my grandparents lived and where I've been coming since I was a boy," he said, pausing to hold up dusty a photo of the family as he sifted through drawers, taking out items of clothing for his mother.
"My parents are both in deep shock, so they'll stay with me in Rome. But they'll want to come back to this area, so I'll have to find them another place to live at some point."
Indeed, few survivors of the quake hold out much hope that they will be returning to live in their communities any time soon — or ever.
The successful rebuilding of earthquake-devastated towns in Italy is the exception, not the rule. And if the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila — still a ghost town seven years after more than 300 people were killed there — gives any hint of the future for these stricken villages and towns, Durante won't be the only one looking for alterative accommodation.
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