WITH THE widely anticipated announcement of an impending judicial enquiry, a strange sort of normality returned to the earthquake-devastated region of Abruzzo in Italy at the weekend.
As thousands of survivors attempted to pick up the threads of their lives after the earthquake, with activities as diverse as the celebration of Easter Sunday Mass or watching TV coverage of Serie A football matches in their tented villages, L’Aquila attorney general Alfredo Rossini on Saturday confirmed he had opened an investigation against “parties unknown” on charges of “multiple murder”.
With the rescue services saying that all those originally declared “missing” have been accounted for, the search for further survivors has been halted. Following the death in Teramo hospital on Saturday night of Tommaso Ivinitti (59), the death toll is 294, while at least five further survivors are listed as “critical” in hospital.
Visiting L’Aquila yesterday for the fourth time in the last six days, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi suggested the “period of emergency” was over and that now all forces must be concentrated on the reconstruction process. Finance ministry sources estimate that it will cost between €4 and €5 billion to repair the major infrastructural damage done to the region, and to rehouse the estimated 55,000 homeless, now living either in Adriatic coast hotels or in the 106 tented villages.
A special government cabinet meeting, due to take place in L’Aquila next week, is expected to provide details of how the emergency funds will be raised. Proposals include a special tax, a special lottery, or the reallocation of existing income taxes.
The prime minister said the process of assessing all the damaged houses and buildings had already begun. Some 1,049 buildings have already been inspected by construction experts, he said, and it would take probably two months to assess all the buildings hit by the earthquake.
Only then would it be possible to calculate how many people could return to those houses that have been left standing, albeit partially damaged.
Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office confirmed on Saturday that it had opened an investigation into the earthquake, which occurred last Thursday, at a time when most of the magistrates were working without an office and still sleeping in their cars.
Mr Rossini confirmed on Saturday that his investigation would focus on the widespread speculation that many of those buildings that collapsed had been built with poor quality products (such as sea sand) and without due regard for the legal requirements for building in an earthquake-prone zone such as Abruzzo.
The prosecutor’s office has already enlisted the help of two L’Aquila university professors, whose task will be to assess the collapsed buildings.
The experts in question are believed to have already examined three of the most controversial public buildings in the city, namely the student residence where 20 students died, the public prosecutor’s own offices and the San Salvatore hospital, which was opened only nine years ago but which suffered such serious damage that two babies were killed in the paediatric unit, while the hospital itself had to be abandoned.