Many questions and criticisms the day after the deadly earthquake in Italy

Many questions and criticisms the day after the deadly earthquake in Italy



The questions and criticisms multiplied the day after the earthquake that struck central Italy, causing 250 deaths and the Italian press wonders, not without indignation, because that predictable humanitarian catastrophe could not be averted.

After the disaster, the death toll has continued to rise as the country noted the extent of the damage, notes the report of the quake-hit region French news television network BFM. And nothing indicates that the stock of 250 dead will not rise.

The Italian press talks today about war images and correspondents to the disaster site compare earthquake-villages bombed cities. Such is the destruction showing photos that readers forgive them these excesses. Amatritse, Akoumoli, Pescara del Tronto ... The names of the villages almost erased from the map are repeated again and again to informational sites and TV channels.

But there are many questions that arise. In the editorials of newspapers, the titles of articles and interviews of experts seems to be a definite resentment, particularly for the large number of dead. To counter such criticism, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who was asked yesterday about the issue, mentioned first in the large number of tourists visiting small villages when they were hit by the disaster. In Amatritse, for example, tourists had arrived en masse in recent days, in view of the 50th festival Amatritsiana, this characteristic of the Italian gastronomy recipe for spaghetti that comes from the village. Then the Italian Prime Minister reminded that all these villages are built around historical past centuries centers, "very nice, but that risk much more" to collapse from an earthquake.

For many commentators, these poor explanations are insufficient and very heavy account was something that could be provided instead of the same earthquake. Italy is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in Europe and this particularity is well known.

"Italy is somehow destined to have earthquakes and we knew this always", writes the online newspaper Linkiesta. "More than one third of the 1,300 most devastating earthquakes that have occurred in the second millennium in the Mediterranean have been recorded in Italy," continues the informative website. The point is not to become fatalists, explains, but to highlight the fact that successive governments have failed to inculcate in the country a true culture to prevent disasters from earthquakes. "We are far more than that," confirmed Francesco Perntouto, the President of the Italian Council of Geologists.

To explain this formidable finding should be taken into account many factors. There is firstly the geographical position of Italy itself, between two tectonic plates, resulting, as recalled in Il Fatto Quotidiano, 24 mil. People living in seismic zone 1, which has the highest risk (the scale goes from 1 to 4). This dangerous zone crosses the entire country from north to south (from northern Tuscany to Sicily).

Despite these data, there is still no a chart to record the buildings are in such hazardous areas. Such a map clamoring for geologists, but the government never responded, recalls the Il Fatto Quotidiano, which today publishes a dossier on political responsibilities to the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the earthquake.

"80% of buildings in high-risk areas could not afford in an earthquake like the one last night," he says of the columns of the newspaper Alessandro Martel, engineer specialist in earthquake engineering and researcher.

In whole Italy, 80% of the buildings are historic structures dating from before 1981, reminds Martel in BFM. 1981 was an important year because then, after the devastating earthquake in Irpinia in November 1980, which had killed nearly 3,000 people in Campania, was necessarily attributed the earthquake standards in all constructions. Consequently today at risk, many public buildings such as schools or hospitals, because only by schools, for example, 50% built before 1981.

The seismologist Massimo Coco emphasizes in her article Fatto Quotidiano that the legislation does not require the adjustment of these buildings in earthquake standards beyond their components. Municipalities and regions only have to perform studies on whether vulnerable buildings feature. And then they, if they want to enhance or not.

The Corriere della Sera points out, as if to challenge the argument Matteo Renzi on threats historical centers by their very nature, that in L'Aquila in 2009 collapsed equally old and new buildings. So it is not so much the age that counts, as if they have been repaired or not.

After the earthquake in L'Aquila, 2 mil. Euro allocated for the renovation of the hospital Amatritse, a foundation of the strategic position, in the earthquake zone, it was also saved from closure. But these funds are never used, reveals the Il Fatto Quotidiano. And overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, the hospital simply collapsed.

Unlike many newspapers, including La Repubblica, today welcomed the work done in Norcia, near the epicenter, and allowed the city to escape the worst.

According to the researchers interviewed by Il Fatto Quotidiano, the priority is to increase funding and education on prevention.

"The government should ensure that each time an amount in its budget in order to achieve the security of earthquakes over a decade," says Alessandro Martel. "Instead every time they say there is no money, which worsens the situation."

According to Linkiesta, funds intended for earthquake prevention decreased by 145 mil. Euro in 2015 to 44 million. Euros this year.

"We should start a serious training company that will make the population more aware of the dangers that exist in the territories resides", concludes the part of Francesco Perntouto response to Il Fatto Quotidiano.

The President of the Italian Council of Geologists adds that, according to several studies, 20% to 50% of deaths occurring during an earthquake in earthquake zones due to incorrect behavior.