Devastating Earthquake Shatters Central Italy

[Fine Point]

Death toll now 150 after quake in central Italy
100,000 reported homeless; up to 15,000 buildings destroyed or damaged

L'AQUILA, Italy - Dozens were feared missing as searchers worked overnight following a powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy early Monday. By nightfall, the death toll stood at more than 150 people. Tens of thousands were homeless and at least 1,500 injured in Italy's deadliest quake in nearly 30 years.

Rescue workers using bare hands and buckets searched frantically for students believed buried in a wrecked dormitory of the University of L’Aquila.

After nightfall Monday, rescuers found a scared-looking dog with a bleeding paw in the half-collapsed dorm. Relatives and friends of the missing stood wrapped in blankets or huddled under umbrellas in the rain as rescuers found pieces of furniture, photographs, wallets and diaries, but none of the missing.

Across the region, rescue workers using powerful floodlights and bulldozers said they would keep searching for survivors through the night.

more @ 150 die as quake devastates Italian towns - Europe- msnbc.com

[Fine Point]

Expert who warned of quake was silenced
Officials discounted his theory, which relied on radon gas concentrations

ROME - An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L’Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic.

The government on Monday insisted the warning, by seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani, had no scientific foundation but Giuliani said he had been vindicated and wanted an apology.

The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 60 miles east of Rome.

Vans with loudspeakers drove around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after Giuliani, from the National Institute of Astrophysics, predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger.

Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

“Now there are people who have to apologize to me and who will have what has happened on their conscience,” Giuliani told the daily La Repubblica newspaper.

more @ Italian who warned of quake was silenced - Europe- msnbc.com

[GoodWitch]

So sad. Some of those buildings had been there since the early 1200's. And of course, all those people injured or killed.