Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Italian Earthquake

Many of you know that my daughter Nicola lives north of Rome and are wondering whether she has been affected by this week's earthquake. She is OK. Because our access to e-mail is spasmodic while travelling I am repeating below a message she has sent out in response to the worried enquiries she has received.

" …. after receiving so many emails and text messages from people worried about us, I just thought I’d write and tell you that we are fine. I know many of you heard that the earthquake hit an area north of Rome and that we indeed live in the north of Rome, but the quake hit an area about 80 miles north of where we live.

We actually slept through the whole thing, although I don’t know how as I am a light sleeper normally and most of our friends spent the night outside their homes as they were so frightened after feeling the earthquakes from so many miles away!! We have since felt many aftershocks and it is all pretty frightening, but the area where we live is completely unaffected and safe. At 11.30 this morning there was a particularly strong aftershock, almost 5 on the Richter scale and I fear that it will have caused further damage up in Abruzzo.

Rome is in chaos because of the need for emergency help and the hospitals are full to bursting with injured people. The motorways up to Abruzzo are blocked, partly because of the worry about them being damaged, and partly to let the emergency services get to the area without any delay.We have several friends with relatives in the area directly affected, but we’ve done a full headcount and everybody is ok, thank goodness.

Love to you all,Nicola and family."

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