I immediately contacted friends today in Italy when I heard about the tremendously strong earthquake that struck the nation.. they were fine. So many others are not. As a matter of fact, as the day turns into night and the hours grow in time, hope is dimming for survivors..
At the hour I type this dispatch up, at least 159 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured by a powerful earthquake that destroyed a cluster of small mountain villages in central Italy…
368 injured..
Italy’s health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, said that many of the victims were children..
The death toll is likely going to increase as more rubble is removed..
“Unfortunately, 90 percent we pull out are dead, but some make it, that’s why we are here,” said Christian Bianchetti, a volunteer from Rieti working in the village of Amatrice, where flood lights were set up so the rescue could continue through Wednesday night.
Amatrice, a village of 2,700 about 60 miles northeast of Rome, was devastated by the magnitude-6.2 quake, which struck at 3:36 a.m. local time and was felt as far away as the Italian capital.
MORE from FOX:
Italy’s civil protection agency set up tent cities around each hamlet to accommodate the thousands of homeless.
The medieval center of Amatrice was devastated, with the hardest-hit half of the city cut off by rescue crews digging by hand to get to trapped residents.
Amatrice is made up of 69 hamlets that teams from around Italy were working to reach with sniffer dogs, earth movers and other heavy equipment to reach residents. In the city center, rocks and metal tumbled onto the streets and dazed residents huddled in piazzas as more than 200 aftershocks jolted the region throughout the day, some as strong as magnitude-5.1.
I have no words to describe the sadness I feel .. I read this headline and article from the UK MIRROR, about how rescue workers are trying to listen for the screams of trapped children.
They also present drone footage showing the damage:
One other article: Someone describing that the only sound from certain villages are the noises of cats. No humans..
This is an utter tale of misery…
I can only say we need to collectively organize our prayers and collective consciousness …
…..after the aftershocks stop.
