The first funeral for one of the earthquake’s victims was held on Friday, for the son of a state official who died in Amatrice.
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Rescue workers acknowledged Friday they might not find any more survivors from Italy’s natural disaster as they confronted a new obstacle to their recovery work: a powerful aftershock that damaged two key access bridges to hard-hit Amatrice, threatening to isolate it.
(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia). A woman touches a coffin of one of the victims of Wednesday’s quake, inside a gymnasium in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, Friday, Aug. 26, 2016.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is due to attend state funerals in the regional capital, Ascoli Piceno, for victims from the town of Arquata.
“It is a great tragedy. My thoughts are with them because there are people who have lost everything, homes, loved ones and the sacrifices made in life”, said local resident, Luciana Cavicchiuni.
Quake experts estimate that the cost of the short-term rescue effort and mid- to longer-term reconstruction could exceed one billion euros (US$1.13 billion).
It was more bad news for rescuers, who have been desperately combing through mountains of rubble for a second day.
He said that 15 people, including some children, had not been accounted for. Some of the older residents had grandchildren visiting in the last days of summer.
ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty ImagesAn emergency service personnal walks with his rescue dog next to volunteers participating in rescue operation near rubble and debris of a destroyed building marked with a security cordon and a excavator in the damaged central Italian village of Amatrice on August 26, 2016 two day after a 6.2-magnitude quake struck the region killing some 267 people.
At least 281 people have been killed, including a Canadian. Several people are still unaccounted for. “An event like this weakens you physically and mentally”.
The first private funerals were scheduled for today – including one in Pomezia, south of Rome.
Mattarella arrived by helicopter at the edge of Amatrice, a once-picturesque stone town, and was shown the extent of the damage by the mayor, Sergio Pirozzi.
Amatrice normally has a population of around 2,500, but the historic town was packed with vacationers for its annual Amatriciana spaghetti festival when the quake struck as people slept in the early hours of Wednesday.
The president, who will later attend a state funeral for some of the victims, was taken only to the edge of the town, because it is too risky to enter the heart of the medieval town due to the extent of the destruction.
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Even before the bridges were shut down Friday, roads have been choked with heavy traffic as emergency vehicles bring scores of rescue crews up to town and dump trucks carry tons of concrete, rocks and metal back out the single-lane roads.
