Has Anyone....

[sc7500]

... heard from Kelticheart ?

No reports on how his neighborhood survived the earthquake - I wonder if everything's alright ?

[sc7500]

[Robert John]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8035743.stm

Hi sc7500
Try milkbottles.

[kelticheart]

Hi Bruce,

the earthquake struck an area between Ferrara, Modena and Mantova with the centre localised right outside of Ferrara. Although I live in the same region, Ferrara lays a good 150 km, roughly 95 miles, East of here.

It did woke us up on Sunday morning at 4 a.m., with furniture creaking, bed shacking, floors and walls trembling and light fixtures hanging from ceilings dancing around what we call the quake ballet. Aftershocks strong enough to be felt here struck again at 5 a.m. and on Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. To date, local news report aftershocks are still going on in the area and up to 5,000 people were evacuated from their homes around Ferrara since Sunday.

Fortunately for us here, no damages were suffered by people and buildings outside of the above area. Luckyly, the casualty count is incredibly limited to 5 people only, with up to 60 people lightly wounded by falling debris.
All that was badly damaged or reduced to rubble are historical buildings, a castle and churches from the 12th-13th century up to the Rennaisance period. Nothing built after WWII was seriously damaged. The splendid Rennaisance Gonzaga palace in Mantova was damaged as well, but nothing can replace the loss of a human life. Sadly, the victims were 3 night shift wokers in a local ceramic tile producing plant where the entire ceiling collapsed on them, a 37 year old German woman tourist who died in Bologna of an heart attack caused by her panic and a 103 year old woman who died when her extremely old farm house ceiling partly caved in over her bedroom. What's surprising is the collapse of the ceramic tile plant, which was entirely assembled out of pre-built concrete panels less than ten years ago.

The first shock recorded a 5.9/6.0 Richter-scale degree, the second an hour later recorded 5.5 and the third on Sunday reached 5.1. Incredibly, it was the U.S. Government Earthquake Watch Institute which first spread the news all the around the world, only few minutes after the first shock struck.

Thank you for your concern, my friend.

KH

[sc7500]

...Try milkbottles....

I'm Lactose Intolerant - they'd have to evacuate the Basement.....

SC

[Fibber]

Kelto, glad to hear your Okay but when you wrote "...... woke at 4 a.m., with furniture creaking, bed shacking, floors and walls trembling and light fixtures hanging from ceilings dancing around..." reminded me of a old girlfriend from long ago!!! I know family site but couldn't resist it.

[The B24 Guy]

Good to hear that you are OK Kelti.

Regards,
B24Guy

[kelticheart]

Hi everybody.

I sadly have to report that two days ago a new earthquake struck an area already brought down to its knees.

What's scaring is that all experts are saying that there's no quick end in sight and the beast it's moving Westward, in other words towards my area.

The news reported there might be a second underground fault that started acting up, this explains the two days ago quake center closer to Modena.
Yesterday morning the seismic events count passed the 1,200 mark, among main quakes and aftershocks, since the first shock ten days ago. It's very sad that the casualty count went up again after the second quake and victims are almost all local plants workers who decided to go back to work since they thought the worst was behind them.
Now all the small towns between Ferrara and Modena have partly, if not entirely, collapsed and everybody fled from there. Around 14,000 people are now living in tent camps set up for them in the most unconfortable situation, where even washing your face is a serious issue. They are ghost towns, patrolled by the army and policemen to prevent jackals from preying upon empty homes. Most of these people have also mortgages they'll have to pay back anyway, even if their hard-labour earned homes are now a pile of rubble. The government suspended all mortgage payments and tax dues until next December 31st, but after then they'll have to oblige.

What p....... me off is that, up until the day before the earthquake struck, the Po Valley was considered the safest area in the entire country, as everyone knows how prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity the rest of the old boot is. Now it seems that scientist were expecting something to
happen there in the last ten years, that signs a major quake was long overdue were under everybody's nose, or feet, for months and that historical records report a major quake which almost destroyed Ferrara in 1575, with aftershock activity that went on until 1579! Thanks for letting us know.

The geological explanation is that the continental plate holding the Appennini mountain chain is pushing Northeast, while the other with the Alps on top is pushing South. We are right in the middle, there are faults following roughly the course of the Po river and all of this is going on some 9 to 11 km under our feet. They are saying this now, no one said a word during the huge Italian building boom during the last 40 years of the 1900s, when anti-seismic measures could have been built into new houses.

KH

[Hern07]

Just take care of yourself and keep in touch. Am praying for you and for the victems.