Day of agony again in ’quake-hit Udine

Press, 17 September 1976, Page 5

Day of agony again in ’quake-hit Udine

NZPA-Reuter

Udine. Italv

Fierce thunderstorms swept across north-east Italv as thousands of frightened people spent another night in ears, tents, and makeshift huts throughout the earthquake-de\ astated region.

Tens of thousands of; panic-stricken people had I fled from towns and villages yesterday after dozens of tremors continued to rock the countryside, sending recently rebuilt houses again crashing to the ground.

Eight people died, four were killed by falling masonry: three elderlv people died from heart attacks; and ]a Venice port worker fell to his death while trying to ] reach a ship at the beginning of a tremor. At Gemona, north of Udine, j only a handful of people re-] mained behind, camping in tents erected among the towns ruins.

“The situation is much worse than before — you cannot imagine this day' of agony for the people, of

| seeing four months of hard ] reconstruction work crumble again within a few seconds," la teacher said. “The tremors have not] only destroyed our houses, what is much worse is that they have broken the will of the people, their hope to! begin a new life.” The latest series of dis-] turbances, following the Mayl 6 earthquake which killed almost 1000 people, began] on Saturday evening. The exodus from several] Adriatic resorts began j shortly after dawn, after a [new, powerful shock. | Houses and walls col-1 (lapsed and landslides thun-l dered down from the mountains, cutting railway lines] jand blocking roads. The shock reached six points on the open-ended Richter scale — only half a . point less than the May 6 earthquake recording. “The moon was shining, I

I there was a huge circle around it, and we al! thought the end of the work [had come,” said a younp worker from Milan, who had 'come to Udine to spend hi> holidays helping people to rebuild their houses. 1 Udine, the capital of the [Friuli region, looks like a ghost town: soldiers patrol ‘empty streets, the shutterare down on all shops, and on most of the homes still [standing. About 60,000 people, mote than half the population, [abandoned their homei yesterday, taking temporary refuge in safer areas. “I’m not going back into [my flat,” said a woman aged 70. “AU the walls are shaking.” She was wrapped up in a woollen blanket, and water was pouring in from the sides of her small tent. “I’ve no tears any more, ll've no home. I’ve no relatlives."