The devastation harked back to the 2009 quake that killed more than 300 people in and around L’Aquila, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the latest quake.
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At least 38 people have died after the quake destroyed parts of central Italy, causing extensive damage to the towns of Amatrice, Accumili di Rieti and Pecara del Tronto. “We are living this huge tragedy”, said a tearful Rev. Savino D’Amelio, a parish priest in Amatrice. ‘I don’t know what we’ll do’. “There are voices under the rubble, we have to save the people there”, Pirozzi told state broadcaster RAI.
As rescue workers carried away the body of the infant, carefully covered by a small blanket, the children’s grandmother blamed God: “He took them all at once”, she wailed.
Elsewhere in the town, a church is seen with its roof collapsed and surrounded by rubble, while in the town of Pescara del Tronto houses have collapsed causing new openings to roads.
As daylight dawned, residents, civil protection workers and even priests began digging out with shovels, bulldozers and their bare hands, trying to reach survivors. Photos taken from the air by regional firefighters showed the town essentially flattened; Italy requested European Union satellite images of the whole area to get the scope of the damage.
“There are broken liquor bottles all over the place”, lamented Gino Petrucci, owner of a bar in nearby Arquata Del Tronto where he was beginning the long cleanup. “We must get down to work.to restore hope to this area which has been so badly hit”, he said in a brief televised address.
“Listen, I know it’s not nice to say but if you need to pee you just do it”, he said.
Some homes collapsed on residents as they slept.
In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude natural disaster struck in the same region and killed more than 300 people.
The AGI news agency said at least one other person had died in Accumoli, a village close to the epicenter.
“It’s all young people here, it’s holiday season, the town festival was to have been held the day after tomorrow so lots of people came for that”, said Amatrice resident Giancarlo, sitting in the road wearing just his underwear.
The State Department is also asking USA citizens in Burma to contact relatives to let them know you’re OK. “One was a friend of mine”, he said.
As many as 73 people have been reported killed and dozens more are missing or feared dead.
The USGS reports about 13,000 people live in an area that felt a “severe” amount of shaking, and the region is under an “orange level” alert, which means “significant casualties are likely”.
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This corrects the locator of Norcia to northeast of Rome, not northwest.
