From the NYT:
Strong earthquakes struck a mountainous stretch of central Italy early Wednesday, killing at least 38 people, the Italian news media reported, trapping scores under debris and setting off tremors that awakened residents in Rome, nearly 100 miles to the southwest.
The first, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake, struck at 3:36 a.m. near the town of Accumoli, which the Civil Protection Department identified as among the hardest hit, along with the nearby towns of Amatrice and Arquata del Tronto.
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11 comments:
"Thanks, [name of politician I don't like]!"
Google translates: it's a drama (tragedy?). The country is no more.
For your non-Italian-speaking readers, Ann.
Have they arrested any seismologists?
No, Italy isn't Brazil.
The pictures are terrible.
Im surprised 6.2 did this much.
I was in the 6.9 Loma Prieta in SF and it was much less damaging even to unreinforced masonry. So there was something else about this one.
@Althouse, you read Italian?
A 6.2 would barely rattle a teacup in Seattle but Italy's infrastructure is very old and the beautiful buildings very vulnerable. Sad.
It could have been worse.
The pictures are terrible.
Im surprised 6.2 did this much.
I was in the 6.9 Loma Prieta in SF and it was much less damaging even to unreinforced masonry. So there was something else about this one.
Distance probably. The Marina in San Francisco (where most of the SF damage occurred) is sixty miles away from Loma Prieta mountain in Santa Cruz County, the epicenter of that quake. In a bulletin put out following the Loma Prieta earthquake, the USGS estimates that a similar size quake occurring under, say, downtown Hayward (CA) would do the following:
An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 on the eastern Bay Area's Hayward fault […], for example, is likely to be far more destructive than the Loma Prieta event. An “Earthquake Planning Scenario” developed by the California Division of Mines and Geology […] and “An Assessment of the Consequences and Preparations for a Catastrophic California Earthquake” by the Federal Emergency Management Agency […] anticipate the following effects:
• Deaths: 1,500 - 4,500
• Injuries: 45,000 - 135,000
• Damage: More than $40 billion
• One or more hospitals will be destroyed
• All four bridges to the East Bay will probably be closed for hours to days
• Access to and travel within the East Bay will be difficult and limited to emergency traffic.
• Only San Jose International Airport may be available for large aircraft.
• The damage in San Francisco is likely to be severe — the Embarcadero area is as close to the Hayward fault as it is to the San Andreas fault.
(/endQuote)
Michael Edward McNeil said... [hush][hide comment]
The pictures are terrible.
Im surprised 6.2 did this much.
I was in the 6.9 Loma Prieta in SF and it was much less damaging even to unreinforced masonry. So there was something else about this one.
Distance probably. The Marina in San Francisco (where most of the SF damage occurred) is sixty miles away from Loma Prieta mountain in Santa Cruz County, the epicenter of that quake.
Yep. Watsonville had 300 homes destroyed, 1500 damaged.
Most earthquakes in SF bay area are of the "Did you feel it?" type. You look to the hanging light fixture to see if it is swaying.
The correct translation is: "It's a tragedy. The town is no more".
"Paese" in Italian is commonly used to indicate a small town; it is also used to refer to a country (Italy, France, Sweden, ...) but in this case it refers to Amatrice, the little town where "spaghetti all'amatriciana" were invented.
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