There was an earthquake in the Aquila area of Abruzzo last night. It was pretty bad. A state of emergency has been declared and so far the death toll is 27.

I will try and keep you updated with news, but here are some details of the event (that's what it's called here) and the corresponding levels on the Richter scale for villages affected:

http://cnt.rm.ingv.it/~earthquake/data_id/2206496920/event.php

cnt.rm.ingv.it/~earthq...eb_cnt.php


And here is the Italian ANSA News, which so far hasn't put it in English

ANSA ITALIAN

This is the link for the English ANSA so you could check ot through the day

ANSA ENGLISH


And incase you've forgotten, I did post a link where you can watch Italian TV on line FREE. The RAI NEWS 24 will be the best and RAI chanels 1 and 2 plus Channel 5 are the best for news. Here's the link again:
Free Italian TV on line You will need to register to see the free programmes.


I hope any of 'yours' are safe and everyone there is in my prayers.

The latest death toll at 3pm Italian time is of 92 dead. There are a reported 50,000 homeless too...

What a shame. I am sure there will be more. I watched some CNN video. They cant possibly know if anyone is under some of that rubble.

Carole: Does Livio live anywhere near this? I hope he is ok. Thank you for the links.

He is ok. He posted on the other forum. He was the first one that I thought of too, when I heard about this.

Here in the northeast USA Earthquakes seem like such a distant intangible disaster we really can't appreciate because they do not happen here.

I can't even imagine what these poor people went through and are going through now with such losses.

If anyone over there has family in the area and is having difficulty contacting them by telephone, send me a Private Message with as many details as you can and I'll see if I can help in any way. Not sure what I could do, but I may be able to get some news from local authorities on the state of the local area, even if I can't actually get a call through to family or friends...

Link to my Private Message box is at the bottom of all my posts....

I was on Facebook with a friend in Roma when the earthquake occurred. (thank God because I would be so worried about him today). Terrible tradgedy. My prayers are with everyone in Italy today.
So do I understand correctly? Luca & Livio are safe???

Livio and Luca both posted on the italian geneaogy forum, early this morning. I just checked again, to be sure they both posted..and they did.

Great! Thanks Eleven! I was concerned...OK I was VERY worried! Whew! But my prayers will continue for everyone else.

I heard about the earthquake while I was at work this morning from a co worker. This is awful! Carole, do you know if there is an emergency fund set up yet for those wishing to help?

I just called my family in Italy and my aunt said the death toll is still climbing. Not sure I understood correctly but did it wipe out an entire village?

Thanks to all the members who were concerned about my safety.

I live in Rome, which is 50-60 miles fro l'Aquila. I was awakened by the quake (3:30am) but did not give it much importance and went to bed again. When I got up in the morning I learned about the destructions and the victims.
My wife just told me that she felt another tremor at 1:00am (7 hours ago), I was sleeping...

In the next few days I will be leaving for a trip. and I will not access Internet for about 10 days...

nuccia wrote:

... Not sure I understood correctly but did it wipe out an entire village?

The link below has hundreds of photos, the very first one shows Onna, one of the most damaged villages
Pictures from Abruzzo after the earthquake.

Thank you Livio for letting us all know you are ok and that you will be away for a while. I guess I understood my aunt correctly..what a mess! We didn't have the clearest line (her voice kept cutting in and out) and I know they were far away from the area but I was glad to talk to her anyway.

Thank you Livio, very happy to see that you are safe.
My heart goes out to all the families that in L'Aquila.
Vincenza