I'm very happy that Livio, Luca are the rest of our friends that live in Italy are fine. Livio - thank you for posting the links with the photo's and Carole thank you for posting the info for donations. My prayers are with everyone.

There was another huge aftershock just before the 8pm news tonight. 5.8 on the Richter. More buildings damaged in L'Aquila and Onì and that area. No more injured. But there was a great deal of fear. The news began minutes after the tremor happened and there was an atmosphere of almost terror from even the TV 'anchor' men and women - and who can blame them.



I have been watching on and off for most of the day and I feel so very helpless. This afternoon I confess that at one point I just broke down and sobbed at what I was watching. The first - a loooooong queue of people waiting to get something to eat for their lunch. Chatting quietly among themselves while they waited. No place to sit, young, families and the elderly. There were two white haired old ladies,arms linked just waiting when one just slowly collapsed to the floor - her friend tried desperatley to hold her up but couldn't - others quickly caught her and rested her carefully in the mud. Another took his coat off and put it under her head, and yet another gave his coat so her friend could kneel on it next to her and comfort her......

But worse was to come - a report filmed earlier was shown where Protezione Civile (Civil Protection Officers) togethr with firemen were going around the cleared village and trying to check that no one was still in the houses or maybe trapped. Many houses 'look' OK from the outside but the entire inside may have collapsed. The report watched three searchers trying to break down a really old front door, but it wouldn't budge - they turned to an old gentleman standing there and said "It's all collapsed behind the door - we think the roof has come down". He turned to the TV crew and quietly said "But my daughter and her husband and my grandchildren are all in there!" He just looked totally lost. His eyes were almost vacant...

May the Lord forgive me, but I just couldn't watch or listen any more.... my heart was breaking for these people. I cried for so long it hurt. If only I could help make their sadness go away!

I'm sure everyone's prayers are helping them all somehow.

I do hope you won't mind but I will be posting this on a couple of genealogy sites too.

I am watching the news now. I was expecting more tremors but this is almost as big as yesterdays quake. Thanks for keeping us updated Carole.

Thanks for the update Carole.

For those of you unsure about various towns and villages around L'Aquila here is a Google map that you can zoom IN and zoom OUT to maybe see if 'your' people are anywhere near....

>L'Aquila Google map<

Carole wrote:

For those of you unsure about various towns and villages around L'Aquila here is a Google map that you can zoom IN and zoom OUT to maybe see if 'your' people are anywhere near.... >L'Aquila Google map<

Thank you for this Carole.

As you know there were a few people I was worried about, but even though I have not been able to contact everyone, I have, with your help and the excellent resources appearing online, established that neither of the two towns were too seriously damaged, so am certain that they are okay by extension. I am however going to book a trip over for later in the year (giving time for roads to be reopened) so we can catch up with everyone over there properly. It has been far too long since we were there anyway.

On a positive note, I believe that Madonna has made a substantial donation toward her ancestral town in Abruzzo following a direct appeal by the town's mayor.

Robert wrote:

Carole wrote: For those of you unsure about various towns and villages around L'Aquila here is a Google map that you can zoom IN and zoom OUT to maybe see if 'your' people are anywhere near.... >L'Aquila Google map< Thank you for this Carole. As you know there were a few people I was worried about, but even though I have not been able to contact everyone, I have, with your help and the excellent resources appearing online, established that neither of the two towns were too seriously damaged, so am certain that they are okay by extension. I am however going to book a trip over for later in the year (giving time for roads to be reopened) so we can catch up with everyone over there properly. It has been far too long since we were there anyway. On a positive note, I believe that Madonna has made a substantial donation toward her ancestral town in Abruzzo following a direct appeal by the town's mayor.

Good news for you then Robert. It will be nice for you to go to see them and catc up after such a dreadful time. I'm sure that all those who have family who are a long way off, relly appreciate the love and prayers they ate recieving from them.

Yes Madonna's gift was, reputedly, $500,000 - and that was to the town. I bet she has made personal gifts too.