Funerals, a day of mourning for Italy quake victims
AMATRICE, Italy — The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Italy continues to climb even as the country observed a day of national mourning Saturday, and the first funerals were held for some of the 291 victims.
The latest victims were found overnight in the rubble of Amatrice, a medieval hilltop town that was hardest hit by Wednesday's magnitude-6.2 quake.
There were 230 deaths in the town of 3,000 people alone. Also hard hit were the towns of Arquato del Tronto, with 50, and Accumoli, with 11. The death toll increased by one Saturday when a man being treated for his injuries succumbed in a hospital.
About 400 people were injured and many driven out of their collapsed homes. At least 2,100 people are now living in makeshift tent cities.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella visited Amatrice on Saturday, guided by the mayor, Sergio Pirozzi. The president thanked rescue workers, who have been working non-stop in hopes of still finding some people trapped in the piles of rock and metal debris.
The mayor showed the president some of the damage but was unable to take him into the heart of the town because of the danger that more walls might collapse in an area still being hit by hundreds of aftershocks, the Associated Press reported.
The strongest Saturday, at 4:50 a.m., registered a magnitude of 4.2, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, while the Italian geophysics institute measured it at 4.
Mattarella and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi attended a state funeral in Ascoli Piceno as part of the day of national mourning.
Ahead of the funeral, caskets were lined up in a gym where mourners bid farewell to loved ones. They knelt, crying and placing their hands on flower-covered caskets. Among the victims were two girls, 18-month-old Marisol Piermarini and 9-year-old Giulia Rinaldo, whose younger sister survived beneath the rubble, still holding her dead sibling.
"Do not be afraid to shout your suffering, but do not lose courage," Bishop Giovanni D'Ercole said in his homily at the funeral in Ascoli Piceno, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. "Together we will rebuild our homes and churches, especially together will restore life to our communities, starting from our traditions and from the rubble of death. Together!"
Because the region's infrastructure was mostly unharmed by the quake, the area around the towns of Posta and Borbona has emerged as a base of operations for many rescue workers. While the brightly dressed volunteers gathered at some of the area’s eateries Friday to unwind after a day of hard work, some said the damage they saw was enough to dissuade them from living in a place at such severe risk of earthquakes.
“After what I’ve seen the last couple of days, I don’t know if I could live in a place like this,” said Renato Turate, 36, a rescue worker, who came to the area from near Milan. Turate said he helped to pull two bodies from the rubble, including one of a young girl.
Contributing: Doug Stanglin in McLean, Va.