We were headed to the village of Onna, which had sustained massive destruction during the 6.3-magnitude earthquake. Out of a population of around 310 residents, as many as 38 were killed.

Along the road linking the coastal city of Pescara to L’Aquila, we passed by beautiful towns nestled against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.  The road twisted and turned past old ruins and idyllic farms. It was truly stunning. But as we moved deeper into the Abruzzo quake zone we began to pass ruined churches and buildings that looked as though they could have fallen centuries ago but only 36 hours earlier they had been standing tall.

Onna is a rural village situated about 8 miles outside of the city of L’Aquila. Its old stone homes were no match against the massive power of the quake which struck in the early hours while the villagers slept. Most of the homes were hundreds of years old and had survived quakes in the past, but this one was just too powerful.

We were permitted to walk through the ruined village. Cars lay crushed under collapsed walls in the narrow streets and the smell of death hung heavy in the air. The Italian government mobilized quickly and rescue workers and Italian medical teams poured into the region. Fortunately, the road infrastructure remained fairly intact and access from Rome and the East coast was good. Rescue teams continued to search for survivors in one area and would dig frantically, then shout for silence as they listened for any sign of life from the rubble.

The surviving families are now living in a camp that was erected on the outskirts of the village. An Italian team from Operation Blessing was on the ground quickly and worked with the government coordination team to identify essential needs as the camp in Onna was being erected. The first full night had been very difficult for survivors across the region. Due to the high elevation, the nights are very cold year round and many had been forced to sleep in cars, while others slept under plastic sheeting. With frequent aftershocks, no one was prepared to sleep indoors.

I joined our Italian team and arrived in Onna to a media frenzy and there were foreign news crews everywhere. A disaster of this scale on European soil is rare, and the world was following the story with keen interest.

While the military erected large tents and scrambled to source portable latrines, we were asked to provide bottled water, food, sleeping bags, cot beds, pillows, cutlery and other essential items to the camp in Onna. Fortunately, the town of Pescara only lies 1.5 hours away and was well stocked with supplies. We were able to source the materials with, in my experience, unprecedented ease in a disaster situation. On a delivery to Onna, we were ushered into the camp area, which the officials were trying to shield from the media as much as possible. Some villagers were sitting in groups at the opening of the tents, while others were laying on cots. Quite a few families were eating in a marquee erected as a dining area. We stopped to talk to a group of girls. One of them, only 8 years old, had lost her two younger sisters and was crying.

After offloading the truck, we walked through the camp with the coordinator assessing further needs. The camp coordinator asked us to supply a generator-powered flood light system to help illuminate the camp at night. He told us how many of the survivors, especially children, were petrified of the dark with the association of the nighttime quake.

In the dining hall, I took a few photographs of a woman eating some of the food we had supplied. I was tapped on the shoulder by one of the camp coordinators. “She lost three family members,” he whispered on my ear. I put down my camera and turned to offer my apologies but she was staring into her plate with glazed eyes.

The survivors are still in a state of utter shock. In an instant they lost family members, homes, all of their possessions, and were left hungry and in the cold. However, despite their shock and grief, the villagers of Onna do not want to leave.  Many residents of L’Aquila were ushered to Pescara to stay in hotels, but it seems that villagers in the surrounding communities would rather stay put. “Many of them kept their money in their homes, maybe under the mattress,” explained one aid worker who had been called in from Milan. “They don’t want anyone to steal it.” Another coordinator suggested that it was the village itself that kept them there: “They are proud of their heritage and are afraid that if they leave they will never come back.”

A major news network interviewed me about the situation in the camps. During the interview, I was asked to compare this disaster to other earthquakes I have responded to. Having spent the majority of the last 6 months living in China, I drew comparisons to the Sichuan earthquake. The May 12, 2008 earthquake struck in the afternoon, and that is thought to have spared many lives. But this quake struck while the residents slept, the worst possible time. Several of the villagers in Onna were still wearing their pajamas two days after they were forced to run into the night cold.

Also, the Sichuan quake was followed by a long series of aftershocks, some of which were very strong. The Chinese government put a hold on any reconstruction for three months while teams carried out geophysical surveys. In the midst of an “earthquake storm,” it will be a matter of months before reconstruction can begin here in Onna, that is if reconstruction is allowed at all. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Bersculoni has suggested that the government will build a new city for quake victims. This idea did not seem to go down well in the camp at Onna where the villagers want to rebuild their old homes. “Our economy is terrible, how will they help us?” shouted an old man lying on a cot bed.

Another comparison to Sichuan is how the quake has affected the elderly. If the stress of the disaster was not hard enough already, the elderly residents of Onna are now facing the anxiety of not knowing how they will ever rebuild their homes. Many had retired and were living out their lives in comfort and security, but now with no insurance and no possibility of work, they are hopeless for the future.

As the relief efforts continue, the road to recovery looks to be difficult for the quake victims of Italy.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 10:11 am and is filed under David Darg, Disaster Relief, Europe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.