storms in Messina: chronicle of a tragedy waiting to happen
On days 1 and 2 October, a violent storm that has engulfed Messina. Lineup and Giampilieri Zanclea are the worst affected areas. Between anger, tears and mud there are now victims of a tragedy long foretold.
I saw my despair and cry city. Now all Messina we are really worried.
Today we must think more than ever to our land, our victims, our people who had to leave their homes and are now seeking help from the community.
reigns of terror, the bitterness and the feeling of abandonment. You feel no way 'out, as if the mud that gives no respite was the embodiment of the fears that cross the minds of all the people of Messina, who for many years no longer find meaning to their life here at Messina.
Today we are even more confused : also hope to build a better future in this city seems even more distant.
Giampilieri no longer exists and this fraction as many more likely to disappear if you do not take appropriate and necessary action. The measures ... in fact. Yesterday, President Berlusconi has promised to build "new housing" for the displaced. Such districts, though? Buried as the concrete, Messina has no more free spaces in which to build.
I walked across some of the areas affected by the storms : Giampilieri, Ladder Zanclea, Navy Brig, Santa Margherita, Ponte Schiavo, the villages that few knew before this tragedy, and few knew to be threatened by landslides, mudslides and storm surges. Yet that same mountain
Giampilieri Higher in 2007 had shown signs of slowing down. In 2007, the same .
to secure funding did not come for a serious error of assessment 'area, which was not classified as a hazardous area. To confirm this, the ratio of PAI Sicilian (Piano hydrogeological): Giampilieri the area was not considered at risk because the hydrogeological town of Messina had not reported to the region.
announced tragedy because this city has a history of wild land use: the houses were built without the proper distance from streams, sandy soils in geologically incapable, unstable and prone to failure, but most of the houses are no longer terms, almost all healed from previous amnesties.
tragedy might have been avoided with more careful and accurate risk assessment and hazard in those areas.
In my experience a few hours in the places affected by the storms be assailed by the sounds of sirens of emergency vehicles. I stop to listen to the voices and stories of people and maybe I can feel something more than the tragedy that Messina is experiencing at this time.
meets a boy about 20 years is not the place, it is a curious and even a journalist, but is there from morning to dig in the mud and rubble hoping to find his friend alive. Do not tell me much, I do not ask another, already enough for me to understand.
I stop in an alley covered with about five feet of mud and I find no way out, I see people shoveling the mud in front of their houses, the mud. Later a group of guys trying to pull the car out of the mud and I try to help him.
Not all on-site, however, are there to lend their aid: in this drama, unfortunately, there were jackals who tried to take advantage of the tragedy.
still raining and almost dark. Rescuers continue to dig and meanwhile I get the first bus came to take away from this nightmare displaced.
I reflect on the fact that the tragedy is confined to small villages.
way home I notice that after a few kilometers from the disaster everything seems normal as if nothing had happened.
And if this drama remained peripheral, and as such be forgotten?
Fortunately many people are responding with any form of solidarity and practical help : centers for fundraising and for essential civilian needs, teams of volunteers in sorting centers and at the hotels to bring comfort to the displaced citizens.
I read the latest news in the papers: death toll rises and with it the pain, anger, bitterness. Many people still unaccounted for. Meanwhile, we continue to dig.
I call friends, want to organize teams shovellers in areas affected by the storms.
That mud is all of us and together we have to shovel it.
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