12117 Cheerful earthquake stories

There are lots of heartwarming stories coming out of the rescue efforts in l'Abruzzo - but this one is so Italian I can't resist reporting it - from today's Corriere d'Umbria.
Three of the 'tent cities', set up as a first resource for people without houses, are the responsbility of protezione civile contingents from Umbria. One of them is run by Foligno - a place which knows a lot about earthquakes. This crew is proudly pointing out that since their camp is by far the best tent-city in l'Abruzzo, people are trying by every means to get transferred to it!
They got a Post Office up and running on Tuesday, (the bar would have been a Monday job), plus playtents for the children, a Church, meeting rooms, consultation tents for the medics - alongside all the more obvious services such as kitchens and dining rooms and sleeping accommodation. They are a bit short of showers, that's all.
It's a pretty impressive feat of organisation, but the Umbrian teams are clearly in fierce competition with those from Trentino to run the best tendopoli. This sort of manic regional pride is all to the benefit of the dispersed population!

Category
Circolo di Conversazione

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/10/2009 - 08:45

And rightly so! A bit of healthy competition never hurt anyone. Who are the other competitors in this collective community spirit? Are pictures available of this high ranking tent city?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/12/2009 - 13:58

I haven't found a lot of cheerful earthquake pictures, but this one tickled my fancy. Need a safe bed for the night? - look no further....

[CENTER][ATTACH]2637[/ATTACH][/CENTER]

(full credits at [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/mimimum/3427448278/]Terremoto Abruzzo © Alessandro Serranò 197 on Flickr - Photo Sharing![/url])

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/17/2009 - 17:06

Every cloud, as they say... This is a story about the quake in Rocca di Cambio shuffling off some plaster inside a Church, and revealing a mediaeval fresco.

[url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6115467.ece]Abruzzo 'miracle' as fresco of Virgin Mary and Jesus appears - Times Online[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 12:49

These one aren't so much cheerful - more of a 'who would have thought...'

There is a story (with some quite impenetrable map/diagrams) on the ingv site which considers the alterations in GPS co-ordinates of various landmarks in the earthquake damaged area of l'Abruzzo.
They have hardly moved enough for you to have to reprogram your TomTom, but it demonstrates rather well just how the terrain has changed, and presumably also gives the seismologists extra data for fault mapping.

It isn't only people and animals who have had to be evacuated, the art works housed in the Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo (located in the Castle in l'Aquila, which suffered some damage) have been shipped out to a recently opened Prehistoric Museum in Celano. I don't know if they will be visitable there, or will be in storage.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/24/2009 - 13:23

Perhaps this is a cheerful story? That brilliant young Italian footballer Macheda, who plays for Man U and recently scored a brilliant goal in his first 2 games (for those that don't know), is auctioning his Manu Shirt in aid of those in need in L'Aquila.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 10:51

Didn't quite know where to put this - it is a rather clever animation explaining the rudiments of why and how earthquakes happen.

[url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7533950.stm]BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Animated guide: Earthquakes[/url]