Quakeproofing ItalyCalls in Italy for quake-proofing the country’s buildings, infrastructure

Published 27 October 2016

More and more Italians are urging the government to invest more funds to make buildings in the country earthquake resistant. Earlier today (Thursday), Italy was dealing with the cost of two quakes which reduced villages in the Apennines to rubble and left thousands homeless. Geologists have been saying that Italy is such seismically active country that the only option is to strengthen buildings to the extent possible and learn to live with the threat.

More and more Italians are urging the government to invest more funds to make buildings in the country earthquake resistant. Earlier today (Thursday), Italy was dealing with the cost of two quakes which reduced villages in the Apennines to rubble and left thousands homeless.

Some 3,000 were sheltered in community centers, schools, and sports arenas after two tremors struck within two hours of each other on Wednesday.

The Financial Times reports that the second quake was measured at 5.9 in magnitude, but the number of casualties was much smaller than the 300 killed two months ago when a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck central Italy.

The two Wednesday earthquake killed only one person, and nearly 100 were treated for injuries.

“Italy is wounded, but will not be bowed,” Matteo Renzi, the prime minister, said. He promised that the homeless would not have to live in tents through the winter months. “I’m optimistic that we can rebuild,” he said.

Experts as well as ordinary Italians said the government must allocate more funds on quake-proofing buildings – rather than spend money on headline-grabbing infrastructure projects such as building a suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina to connect the mainland to Sicily.

Renzi revived the suspended bridge proposal last month, saying it would create tens of thousands of jobs. Critics say that the bridge would cost billions and that much of the money would find its way to the pockets of mafia organizations.

“The only big project that this country needs is to make public buildings safe (from earthquakes),” said Paolo Ferrero, of the leftist PRC party. “Renzi should stop blathering on about the Messina Strait bridge and stump up the funds needed to prevent buildings from collapsing in the future.” 

Ferrero called for 20 billion euros to be allocated to quake-proof vulnerable buildings across the country. Other Italians grumble about the huge amounts of money spent on rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean – money, they say, which should be used to make the country’s seismic-prone regions  more quake-safe.

The FT notes that geologists have been saying that Italy is such seismically active country that the only option is to strengthen buildings to the extent possible and learn to live with the threat.

“The seismic risk has been underestimated, when we should have learnt to live with it. The only thing that can be done is to build safer homes,” said Paolo Messina, director of the Institute of Geology at the National Research Center. “When you buy a car, you make sure that it has air bags and good brakes. But when people build or restore houses, they often prefer to save money rather than ensure that they are safe (against earthquakes),” he told La Repubblica newspaper. 

Scientists say that the area of Italy most at risk from quakes is the Apennine chain of mountains and surrounding valleys, where thousands of towns and villages are located, many with centuries-old houses, churches, convents, towers, castles, and monasteries. 

Experts say that quake-proofing all these structures would be daunting and expensive, but that there is no other choice. “We run the risk of having to spend even more money if we don’t do that. Building houses that can withstand quakes is the only weapon in our armory,” said Messina.

The 6.0 earthquake which struck central Italy on 24 August caused an estimated €4 billion in damage. 

Since Wednesday, there have been more than 340 aftershocks, according to the National Institute of Geophysics. Some of the aftershocks were felt in Rome, but experts examining the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and other historic sites found no damages.