Bishop Javier Echevarría Rodriguez, the prelate of Opus Dei, asked them “to collaborate as much as possible and to help those responsible for organising and bringing relief to those affected”.
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A 6.0-magnitude natural disaster jolted Italy on Wednesday at 3:36 a.m. local time, with a 5.4-magnitude aftershock that followed the initial quake.
“We will look for places for them to stay – hotels, with relatives”.
Sister Mariana, a 32-year-old from Albania, was one of three nuns and an elderly woman who survived the quake that hit central Italy early Wednesday when she escaped a collapsing convent in Amatrice, a medieval hilltop town.
On the ground, crews still hoped to find all those unaccounted for, though the number is still uncertain given the large number of visitors for summer holidays and an annual food festival.
But, as the firefighters’ spokesman Luca Cari recalled, survivors were recovered even 72 hours after the 2009 quake. “Yesterday during the night it nearly reached freezing, so people can not be here for a long time”.
It was more bad news for rescuers, who have been desperately combing through mountains of rubble for a second day.
The firefighter came out to the scene after the girls’ parents were found injured but alive following the quake.
THE death toll from a devastating quake in central Italy reached at least 250 people yesterday and could rise further after rescue teams worked through the night to try to find survivors under the rubble of flattened towns.
Crumbled buildings suffered yet more cracks when the aftershock hit.
Amatrice was shaken by another powerful aftershock on Friday morning, causing further damage to its centre.
Residents gathered at a square in Amatrice, some of the women crying and hugging to console each other, with dust still lingering in the air. Men stood in silence, stoically, too upset to share their stories with reporters.
Two of the victims are believed to have owned an apartment in Sommati, a village about 1.3 miles from Amatrice, according to Sky News.
“And the thing that I will remember for the rest of my life was she had nice hands”. Her husband, Will, was called a staunch supporter of their work.
Spain’s foreign minister said one Spanish national had been killed, with Spanish media saying it was young woman who had lived in the village of Illica with her Italian husband, who survived.
Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said Thursday that some 293 historical buildings were damaged or destroyed by the quake, although the most important heritage sites in the region were unscathed.
Historic buildings and city walls in Nursia and a cathedral in San Giuliano also were damaged.
Italian authorities launched a wider investigation on Thursday into the collapse of buildings in quake-devastated region, as questions were asked about why more lessons had not been learned from the 2009 natural disaster in the central city of L’Aquila that killed 308 people and left tens of thousands of people homeless.
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Early Friday a magnitude 4.7 aftershock hit the area, one of 57 to strike since midnight.
