Close
A historic place now lay in rubble with the death toll climbing above 290 following a devastating 6.2-magnitude earthquake while people sleep in their bed on August 23/24, 2016. The unexpected earthquake struck three small towns in central Italy early Wednesday morning hitting the small mountain town of Amatrice displacing more than 1,000 people including young children. Five days after the quake on a Sunday Catholic clerics are holding a Mass for survivors under a large tent underneath a makeshift cross constructed out of two fire ladders and the helmets of rescue workers as reported by AP. Pope Francis says he plans to visit an area in Italy struck by a deadly earthquake to bring the people there the “comfort of faith.” The Pope told a crowd at his weekly Sunday address at St. Peter’s Square: “Again I tell those dear populations that the church shares their suffering.” It is reported that there will be an investigation which will focus on a number of structures, including an elementary school in Amatrice that crumbled when the quake hit on early Wednesday. It is reported that the school was renovated in 2012 to resist earthquakes at a of 700,000 euros. ($785,000). Questions also surround a bell tower in Accumoli that collapsed, killing a family of four, including a baby of 8 months and a 7-year-old boy. The bell tower had been recently restored with special funds allocated after Italy’s last major earthquake in 2009. The 6.2 magnitude quake flattened three medieval towns in central Italy that have been standing for over hundreds of years, destroying not only private homes but also churches and other centuries-old culture treasures. After five days where there has been near to 1,820 aftershocks there is now some calm where mourners in Italy prayed, hugged, wept and even applauded as 35 coffins carrying the quake victims passed by at a state funeral in the town of Ascoli Piceno. Emotions that had been dammed up for days broke in a crescendo of grief on Aug. 27, a sad Saturday. One young man wept over a little girl’s white coffin. Another woman gently stroked another small casket. Many mourners were recovering from injuries themselves, some wrapped in bandages. Everywhere people knelt at coffins, tears running down their cheeks, their arms around loved ones. “It is a great tragedy. There are no words to describe it,” said Gina Razzetti, a resident at the funeral. “Each one of us has our pain inside. We are thinking about the families who lost relatives, who lost their homes, who lost everything.” It really do hurt, it seems like it was just hours ago many were greeting and smiling with one another, saying goodnight to loved one not realizing that death in the most frightening manner will come in the sound of collapsing buildings. Bodies being buried under rubble, zapping the last breath before rescuers come. Sure the Lord didn’t planned it this way and yet we must give thanks because it could have been worse. ….Appreciates you. …_END_.