The Emilia region hit hard Foto: Francesco Giacalone
A series of seismic shocks have devastated the north of Italy and left the country stunned, writes Ilaria Bettinelli in Milan.
Sunday May 20, at 4.03am (0204 GMT) a strong earthquake of magnitude 6 hit the area of the Emilia Po-Plain between the Modena, Ferrara, Rovigo and Mantova provinces, in the Emilia region.
This was the beginning of a nightmare for the northern part of Italy: 17 dead, 350 injured and 15,000 evacuated. The earthquake also wrought severe damage to historic and famous buildings and to the region’s productive infrastructure.
The quake struck one of the most productive areas in Italy as the country faces enormous pressure to grow its economy to stave off the country’s debt crisis.
But there’s little hope of relief after this massive setback.
And on Tuesday May 29, only a week after the first seismic shock, a new devastating earthquake of 5.8 magnitude, with epicentre in the province of Modena, again rocked the north of the peninsula.
Aftershocks have been continuing with an average of 30 to 40 of medium intensity per day, causing widespread panic and fear in big cities such as Milan, Bologna, Turin and Verona.
People are waiting for more tremors: in some cities, for example Milan, schools and offices have been evacuated right after the two main quakes.
The Civil Protection and The Municipality of Milan managed the situation, evacuating eight schools in the centre of the city and carrying out checks on buildings and infrastructure.
People have been waiting in the streets until the Fire Department inspected premises and pronounced them “safe and suitable”.
Inconveniences on the subway and train tracks worsened the situation, as the main train lines between Bologna and other northern cities were interrupted to allow for safety checks. To comply with the security protocol, the speed of trains has also been lowered to a maximum speed of 100 km/h.
The situation in Milan is now under control, but citizens and associations are asking for donations to aid the Emilia region earthquake victims.
But questions are now being raised about the lack of preparation and about workers’ safety. Many of the dead in Tuesday’s earthquake were workers inside huge warehouses and factories.
The President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, called for investigations to establish what precautionary measures could have been taken to prevent so many deaths.
Concetta Nostro, seismologist of INGV (Geophysics and Volcanology National Institute) said the earthquakes were caused by a deformation process that is creating a series of new hills in the Pianura Padana (Po valley), which are pushing the Appenino towards the Alps.
She said the region remains in danger of earthquakes and Italy needs to be well-prepared to deal with the impact.
