Althouse: "The cupola of the 18th-century Santa Maria del Sofraggio church was broken in half like an eggshell, revealing the stucco patterns inside the dome."

April 6, 2009

"The cupola of the 18th-century Santa Maria del Sofraggio church was broken in half like an eggshell, revealing the stucco patterns inside the dome."

Many are dead, and historic buildings are damaged in the earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy.

9 comments:

rhhardin said...: Ruins of the future.; 4/6/09, 10:38 AM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: It is a horrible tragedy. *sigh*; 4/6/09, 11:04 AM
Jeremy said...: ROME (Reuters) - An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L'Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing dozens of people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic among the population.

The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km east of Rome.

Vans with loudspeakers had driven around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor's anger.

Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for "spreading alarm" and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.

Italy's Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L'Aquila on March 31 to reassure the townspeople.

"The tremors being felt by the population are part of a typical sequence ... (which is) absolutely normal in a seismic area like the one around L'Aquila," the civil protection agency said in a statement on the eve of that meeting.

"It is useful to underline that it is not in any way possible to predict an earthquake," it said, adding that the agency saw no reason for alarm but was nonetheless effecting "continuous monitoring and attention".

As the media asked questions about the authorities' alleged failure to safeguard the population ahead of the quake, the head of the National Geophysics Institute dismissed Giuliani's predictions.; 4/6/09, 1:23 PM
BJM said...: US response creates another example of tone deaf diplomacy from the Obama administration.; 4/6/09, 2:29 PM
Jeremy said...: BJM said..."US response creates another example of tone deaf diplomacy from the Obama administration."

Right wing blog site drivel.

You actually think this will be the full extent of our involvement?; 4/6/09, 3:49 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: Jeremy said...
BJM said..."US response creates another example of tone deaf diplomacy from the Obama administration."

Right wing blog site drivel.

You actually think this will be the full extent of our involvement?

3:49 PM

EDITORIAL
Are We Stingy? Yes

Published: December 30, 2004

resident Bush finally roused himself yesterday from his vacation in Crawford, Tex., to telephone his sympathy to the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, and to speak publicly about the devastation of Sunday's tsunamis in Asia. He also hurried to put as much distance as possible between himself and America's initial measly aid offer of $15 million, and he took issue with an earlier statement by the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, who had called the overall aid efforts by rich Western nations "stingy." "The person who made that statement was very misguided and ill informed," the president said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/opinion/30thu2.html?_r=1; 4/6/09, 7:43 PM
Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...: At the end, we will probably be the most helpful and charitable nation. However, our leaders are not and cannot be free from criticism, justified or not. And what goes around...; 4/6/09, 7:50 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: The natural world is far bigger, far older, and far more powerful than we are. We live on the nose of a sleeping giant. Sometimes he sneezes.; 4/6/09, 9:03 PM
howzerdo said...: My paternal grandmother came to the US from L'Aquila (in 1911). My sister (who visited there five years ago) is wondering if the house where our grandmother grew up was destroyed.; 4/8/09, 9:22 AM