Boy’s rescue a sign of hope

Press, 28 November 1980, Page 6

Boy’s rescue a sign of hope

NZPA-Reuter „ . Lioni A small boy was pulled from the wreckage of his home yesterday in the ruined village of Lioni, until Sunday the home of 5000 people, and his narrow escape from death gave new 'hope to hundreds of shivering refugees. Antonio Milano, aged 11, was saved from death when the earthquake struck because a heavy wooden door fell on him, but shielded him from the tonnes of masonry, tiles and furniture which collapsed around him. Antonio was one of six recovered alive yesterday, and the refugees took his escape as a sign that God had not totally forgotten them, though many of their loved ones lay buried in the debris.

“We have to accept that there will be very, very few lucky ones left,” said the local Franciscan priest, Father Venanzio. Antonio had spent 65 hours buried in rubble since his three-storey home fell like a pack of cards when the quake struck. When he was pulled out, he thought it was still Monday and told how he had been speaking to his aunt “until a few hours ago.” Her body was found nearby, next to her dead husband and two children. Father Venanzio, standing in front of his ruined convent, said about 600 bodies had already been found.

“The final figure cannot be less than 1000 and possible twice that,” he said.

There was universal admiration for nine West German rescuers whose trained alsatians burrowed into the debris, whimpering at the smell of the dead, and pawing the ground, barking and wagging their tails on the rare occasions when they found someone still alive. The sole Italian doghandler said his dog alone found 30 bodies and one survivor on Wednesday. Balvano, another village, iust scraped by without its men before the earthquake. Now it will have to struggle without its young. The earthquake killed at least 80 people in the mountain village of 2300, and several dozens more are missing. Twenty-five children and 35 young men and women perished.

“Without these people, we have to begin from zero,” said Osvaldo Ambrosio. “It will take months just to dean the town. Five mothers with small children died. There are about 20 children without mothers.”

The people who lost their houses lack everything. The police keep them away from the one or two-storey stucco buildings because of the danger of after-shocks. They cannot recover their sheets, blankets, beds or money.

Almost everyone in the town had his house destroyed or damaged. The lucky ones live in tents in a muddy vacant area in the centre of the town, while others sleep in their cars or under the stars. Balvano suffers from

the emigration that plagues ail of Italy’s under-developed south. About 800 residents, nearly the entire adult male population, lias gone nonh to find work. Cars with West German licence plates streamed along the roads, and tragic news awaited many of the returning emigrants. One man came home to find his wife and four children had been killed. Ghetano ■ Bovino, a young man holding his baby near the tent city, said few people were left to work the fields gathering grapes and olives, herding sheep and tending cows and chickens.

“The old people will have to work,” he said. “They have always worked and they will still work.”