Italy earthquake: Bars offer refuge to people afraid to go home

On the road to Rieti on Wednesday morning, the traffic was all going the other way. In the wake of the massive earthquake which claimed 38 lives in central Italy, people were cutting short their holidays to head home, for fear of further tremors.

With the death toll having risen to 38 by lunchtime, and destined to rise further during the day, Italy is beginning to count the cost of an earthquake that struck towns and villages in the four central regions of Lazio, Umbria, Abruzzo and Le Marche.

On the road to Amatrice, a town which in the words of its mayor has been half-destroyed, normally inconsiderate drivers quietly pull over in order to allow ambulances and heavy duty rescue vehicles make their way to the disaster site.

All around this hilly north Lazio area people are still in shock, all too keen to recount their experiences of the night and worried too that there might be more to come. In a pizzeria in Poggio Moiana, approximately 80km from the epicentre of the quake, the woman behind the bar explains that she and her neighbours have been up all night.

Aftershocks

From the moment they felt the tremors at 3.30am, everyone took to the street and stayed there, worried that the immediate aftershocks might could cause further damage, from 4km below.

Put simply, people in the area do not trust their buildings to survive more shocks. One civil protection officer said that, after Tuesday night’s shock, so many people in Rieti refused to return to their homes that a number of bars opened up in the middle of the night to cater for them.

Further down the road in Posta, the reasons for their worries about aftershocks become clear. While sitting in the car, it begins to shake, as if some very strong person is pushing against it from the side, trying to knock something loose.

For those who have experienced an earthquake, these aftershocks are arguably the worst aspect of the trauma since they inevitably prompt the feeling that the nightmare is unending. For example, the aftershock following the Umbrian earthquake of 1997 probably did more structural damage than the first tremor.

This particular experience may not be unending but it is certainly recurrent, if at a distance of centuries. Historians pointed out that both Amatrice and Accumoli, two of the worst hit villages, were struck by a similar sounding quake all of 400 years ago. Amatrice, too, is just about 50km north of L’Aquila, where a devastating earthquake claimed more than 300 lives in 2009.

Pope Francis was one of many to express condolences on Wednesday. Speaking at his weekly public audience, he said that he had been deeply saddened by reports of death and destruction.

As the day goes on, those reports are likely to increase. The sense of solidarity evoked by the Pope was reflected in the long queues of people forming at different Rome hospitals, offering to donate blood to help deal with what has become a nationl emergency.