LadyTrucker
04-06-2009, 02:14 PM
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/090406-italy-aerial-hmed-1130a.h2.jpgThis neighborhood in L'Aquila, Italy, was among those destroyed by an earthquake overnight.
L'AQUILA, Italy - A powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings as residents slept early Monday, killing at least 91 people and trapping many more, officials said. Tens of thousands were homeless and at least 1,500 injured.
The earthquake's epicenter was about 70 miles northeast of Rome near the medieval city of L'Aquila.
The earthquake struck at 3:32 a.m. local time in the quake-prone Abruzzo region, which has had at least nine smaller jolts since the beginning of April. The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's quake was magnitude 6.3, but Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8.
An Italian Cabinet minister, Elio Vito, told lawmakers that 91 deaths had been confirmed.
Officials said the death toll was likely to rise as rescue crews clawed through the debris of fallen homes.
L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said some 100,000 people were homeless. It was not clear if that estimate included surrounding towns. Some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, officials said.
The four-star, 133-room hotel Hotel Duca degli Abruzzi in L'Aquila's historic center was heavily damaged but still standing. It was not known if there were any casualties, said Ornella De Luca of the national Civil Protection agency in Rome. "The information is very fragmentary," she said.
LINK TO ARTICLE....Read more (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30061140/)
----------------------------------------------
L'AQUILA, Italy - A powerful earthquake in mountainous central Italy knocked down whole blocks of buildings as residents slept early Monday, killing at least 91 people and trapping many more, officials said. Tens of thousands were homeless and at least 1,500 injured.
The earthquake's epicenter was about 70 miles northeast of Rome near the medieval city of L'Aquila.
The earthquake struck at 3:32 a.m. local time in the quake-prone Abruzzo region, which has had at least nine smaller jolts since the beginning of April. The U.S. Geological Survey said Monday's quake was magnitude 6.3, but Italy's National Institute of Geophysics put it at 5.8.
An Italian Cabinet minister, Elio Vito, told lawmakers that 91 deaths had been confirmed.
Officials said the death toll was likely to rise as rescue crews clawed through the debris of fallen homes.
L'Aquila Mayor Massimo Cialente said some 100,000 people were homeless. It was not clear if that estimate included surrounding towns. Some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed, officials said.
The four-star, 133-room hotel Hotel Duca degli Abruzzi in L'Aquila's historic center was heavily damaged but still standing. It was not known if there were any casualties, said Ornella De Luca of the national Civil Protection agency in Rome. "The information is very fragmentary," she said.
LINK TO ARTICLE....Read more (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30061140/)
----------------------------------------------