Heartbreak hunt through ’quake rubble continues

Press, 26 November 1980, Page 8

Heartbreak hunt through ’quake rubble continues

; NZPA-Reuter Potenza Italy Italy’s worst earthquake in half a century has killed more than 1000 people, anc rescuers are still hunting for survivors among the rubble of countless mountain villages. i The confirmed total of dead from the violent tremor that struck southern Italy on [Sunday evening (local time) [stood 'at 1C.2, but officials could give no realistic estimate of the injured and homeless or the cost in property and suffering. "There are no words. They die upon the lips,” said President Sandro 'ertini, weeping openly as he stood among the exhausted rescuers and grieving people of this stricken town. “Believe me, we are all with you. We shall do all we can," said the 83-year-oid President. Rescue work went on through the night with 8000 soldiers being joined by the police and thousands of civilian volunteers. '.

Sniffer dogs and sensitive acoustic sensors sought signs of life beneath the wreckage, and in some places rescuers were guided by moans and screams from victims trapped for more than 24 hours. Aid had still not reached many villages cut off from the outside world. Aerial film on television showed the extent of the damage, with dozens of isolated towns reduced to stoney nibble. As the death toll rose, it seemed destined to exceed that of the 1930 earthquake that struck the same area, killing 1425 people. If so, it will be the worst, in Italy since almost 30,000 people died in the central Abruzzi region in 1915. President Pertini is to visit the town of Sant’Anaelo Dei Lombardi today. With 300 dead so far, it seems to be the worst hit town, and rescuers predict that several hundred more bodies will be found there.

Pope John Paul is also to visit the devastated region today. The Vatican said he would fly by helicopter to a few of the most stricken villages. Seismologists continued to register dozens of minor tremors throughout yesterday, but none were as violent as the Sunday night shock that measured between 6.2 and 6.8 on the Richter scale. It was centred

j near Eboli. south of Naples. 1 At Pescopagano, north of Potenza, the town clock was i stopped at 7.34 — the time -of the first devastating j .1 shock. j Some seven million of ' Italy's rural poor live in the ; 24,000 sq km area afflicted : by the earthquake. I Almost all have relatives • I who have moved to the' I richer nonh or gone abroad Jin search of work. Despite. 'Government appeals thoujsands of cars streamed south. I yesterday, driven by grim-' 'faced emigrants searching' news of parents or wives. i I Telephone lines were cut( lover a vast area, train serv-! ■ices were disrupted over the iwhole of Italy, and many; i roads to the centra! moun-| ( (tains of the south.were damaged or blocked by landslides and rubble.

■ In the Naples area alone. 100,000- people were without roofs and many more chose to spend a second night in the open rather than risk new tremors within their

homes. ■ "1 don’t know r why,. but Saint Januarius is punishing us,” said 63-year-old Anna | Pavese, as she sat in the (back of.a car in the Piazza Del Plebiscite in the heart of Naples. Januarius is the city’s patron. Bits of his dried 1 blood,- preserved in the Roman Catholic Cathedral, are supposed to liquefy in ceremonies in May and September and -guarantee that Naples will be spared disaster in the months ahead.

Many expressed bewilderment that the fourth-century martyr had failed to. protect them, even though his blood reportedly liquefied' both times this year. The Catholic Encyclopaedia describes the liquefaction as a phenomenon that eludes natural explanation. The body of the Archbishop of Froslnone, an archdiocese near Rome, was among those pulled from the; earthquake wrecked build-j ings in Castlegrande near Potenza, Church officials! said.

’They said Mon.'’gnor Michele Federici. aged 69, died under the rubble of a villa he planned to convert for old people from his archdiocese.

In Canberra, the Federal Government is making emergency arrangements to assist relatives of Australian residents affected by the earthquake to be sponsored for immigration as quickly as possible,