Members of Calgary’s Italian community are keeping a close eye on their homeland on Wednesday after a massive earthquake struck the nation overnight.
They’re filled with sadness and worry about the disaster but are still trying to keep it business as usual despite all the images coming in from overseas.
Linda Blasetti, the former president of the Calgary Italian Cultural Centre, says the news was devastating to wake up to in the morning. “To know that many of the families in our community are suffering, possibly the loss of loved ones. We offer our sincere condolences to those families.”
Blasetti says the organization is offering all the support they can to help people contact anyone in the affected regions. “It’s hard to know the effect of the devastation when you watch the news reports. Certainly the epicenter is clearly devastation... Entire towns have been wiped out.”
She says they will be gathering groups in the community together in the coming days and look at what efforts are best suited to what’s needed.
A global call from the Red Cross has not been made yet, Blasetti says, but she expects that to happen at any time.
“We’re recommending that people contact the Red Cross because it’s the most efficient way to get monies to get to the region.”
Blasetti hopes that more survivors will be found. “We are a hopeful people and we hope that people get help.”
A magnitude 6 earthquake struck at 3:36 a.m. (0136 GMT) and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome, where residents woke to a long swaying followed by aftershocks. The temblor shook the Lazio region and Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast.
At least 73 people have been killed and hundreds more have been injured. Rescue crews are still working to dig out any survivors with anything they can.
The hardest-hit towns were the tiny towns of Amatrice and Accumoli near Rieti, some 100 km (62 miles) northeast of Rome, and Pescara del Tronto some 25 kilometres further east.
(With files from The Associated Press)
