Rome’s schools and offices are expected to be half full today. Wednesday boasts no holiday or strike to account for the absences. Romans are packing their belongings and leaving the city thanks to an earthquake prophecy that has generated widespread alarm.
The panic was ignited by rumors that Raffaele Bendandi, an ‘earthquake prophet’ who died three decades ago, predicted a monstrous quake that would reduce Rome to rubble on 11 May 2011.
Bendandi’s status as a disaster forecaster was confirmed when he reportedly predicted the Friuli earthquake in 1976.
Though a foundation set up in Bendandi’s honor has announced that there is no 11 May 2011 prediction in any of his writings, many of Rome’s citizens plan to err on the side of caution. Two years ago, a non-expert accurately guessed that a tremor would strike L’Aquila and the memory of that prediction has left Italians rattled.
Modern experts insist that there is no evidence that an earthquake will occur today, and that tremors are impossible to predict. The risk of an earthquake today is the same as it is tomorrow, the next day, or 1000 years from now.
Officials are shocked at the amount of panic the rumor has generated and have been reminding the public that Rome is located in an area of low seismic activity.
