Word: aquila
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Berlusconi has dismissed the newspaper accounts as "trash" and insisted on forging ahead with his work, including plans for the G-8 summit next month in L'Aquila, the central Italian city that was devastated by an earthquake in April. But allies have begun to question his past behavior and current handling of the crisis. Industry Minister Claudio Scajola, publicly one of Berlusconi's most loyal allies, counseled "more prudence" to the man in charge, though ultimately he blamed the woes on opposition hatchet men. Conservative newspaper editor Giuliano Ferrara, a longtime behind-the-scenes adviser, was less forgiving, writing...
...Plinius Institute at the University of Naples Federico II, which has developed complex models for calculating the effects of a natural disaster on individual cities in Italy according to local conditions, including the quality of building construction and viability of roads and other infrastructure. Within minutes of the L'Aquila quake, Plinius had reached what turned out to be a very accurate estimate of the location and severity of damage, which helped guide the Civil Protection authorities' response. "You have to understand the nature of the disaster as quickly as possible," says Zuccaro. "In Naples, one risk is that roads...
...Others were already asking the same question. Friday's edition of the La Repubblica daily featured a spot (and certainly preliminary) probe into the collapse of a six-story apartment building in L'Aquila that crumbled to the ground, killing 26 of its 75 residents. A seemingly identical building right next door remained intact, none of its residents even injured. "They planned it in the wrong place," the paper concluded of the devastated building, which was built in the early 1980s...
...Reuters reporter at the funeral. The Abruzzo native had come to pay his respects to family friend Paola Pugliesi, 65, who died with her son Giuseppe, 45. "Their building simply disintegrated. This should not have happened." A student dorm and a modern hospital also suffered major damage in L'Aquila. Nearby, in the tiny village of Onna, more than 40 people died, while other areas were spared any loss of life...
...Napolitano's words and the official government inquiry that has been opened should be the focus not just in L'Aquila but throughout the country, which is crisscrossed by two major fault lines and experiences dozens of small earthquakes each year...