Aftershocks hamper rescue efforts in Italy quake

World Today

ITALY-QUAKEView of damages in a street of Pescara del Tronto, a central Italian village near Amatrice, on August 26, 2016, two day after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the region killing some 267 people. / AFP PHOTO / MARIO LAPORTA

Hope is fading in Italy. With each passing hour signs are not good that more people will be pulled out alive. The death toll is climbing.

And, more than a thousand aftershocks have hindered rescue crews since the quake struck Wednesday. The biggest aftershock was in Amatrice, the town at the epicenter.

Kate Parkinson is there and explains how rescue efforts are progressing.
Follow Kate Parkinson on Twitter @katecctvnews

Rescue efforts in the tiny hilltop town of Amatrice are becoming increasingly complicated. More than 1,000 aftershocks have hit the area since Wednesday’s quake.

On Friday morning one with a magnitude of 4.7 damaged key routes into the town, making access by road almost impossible.

Valerio Checch with the Forestry Service Guard said, “This morning with the last quake the bridge seriously collapsed. The street at the top of the village is also temporarily closed so we are completely isolated. All the engineers and the civil protection workers and the army are now working to restore at least one route.”

Italy declared a state of emergency in the region as civil protection teams resorted to bringing supplies into the quake hit town on foot.

An estimated 2,500 people have been left homeless by the deadly quake. The town, just last year voted one of the most beautiful in Italy, now lies in ruins.

Residents have been returning to pick up possessions. Claudio told CCTV how he and his wife survived the quake but he came back today to collect a missing family member.

“I thought the dog was underneath the ruins. But this morning they called me, because he has the microchip and they told me ‘look, someone found your dog’.” Claudio said.

But his family salvaged none of their possessions.

For the evacuated residents, rebuilding their lives will not be easy. They will likely spend months, maybe even years in temporary accommodation and while the government has promised to rebuild the region it’s hard to imagine how the historic towns and villages flattened by Wednesday’s quake will ever be the same.