Below is the outline of the earthquake disaster in Italy from ADRC.
“A magnitude 6.2 quake hit at 03:36 (01:36 GMT) on April 24, 2016, 100km (65 miles) north-east of Rome, in central Italy. More than 70 people were killed in the earthquake.”
However, Reuters mentioned, “The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Italy climbed to 250 on Thursday as rescue teams scoured mounds of rubble for a second day in towns and villages flattened by the natural disaster.” on Friday, two days after the quake.
In addition, the source also added, “Almost 200 of the victims died in Amatrice, which is famed for a local pasta dish and was full of holiday makers ahead of its 50th annual food festival, set for this weekend.”
Historically speaking, Italy has had a lot of earthquake disasters that have caused huge numbers casualties. Italy has had 44 earthquakes that have caused over 1,000 deaths since 1600. The interval is approximately . 25 years. They happened mostly in the central and southern part of Italy around the Apennine mountains and caused huge casualties. One of the reasons they had a large number of casualties was the stone-built houses.
Table 1 and Table 2 show the 1900–2016 top 10 deadliest and costliest disasters in Italy (EM-DAT).
Table 1: Total deaths
Table 2: Total damage
Southern Italy had an earthquake (M6.9) in Campania (1980 Irpinia earthquake), the dead number is approximately . 4700, damage is 20 billion USD. The 2009 L’Aquila earthquake (M6.3) occurred and caused approximately death and 2.5 billion USD damage. This earthquake became controversial because the scientists and government officers were sentenced to six years in prison for their false announcement. The quality of construction also became an issues “Once again, we are faced with a lack of control over the quality of construction.” “In California, an earthquake like this one would not have killed a single person,” Franco Barberi, who heads a committee assessing earthquake risks at Italy’s Civil Protection agency, told reporters in L’Aquila (Reuters AlertNet) after the quake.
1908 Messina earthquake (M7.1) had caused the highest death number (75,000) in Italian history since 1900.
Reuters said still now (26, 2016), “Italy has a poor record of rebuilding after quakes. About 8,300 people who were forced to leave their houses after a deadly earthquake in L’Aquila in 2009 are still living in temporary accommodation.”
