Italian Quake Death Toll Climbs To 272

More Than 28,000 Left Homeless As Aftershocks Plague Country's Mountainous Central Region

(CBS/AP)  Bells tolled in hilltowns across central Italy on Wednesday as the first funerals got under way for victims of the country's devastating earthquake. The Vatican granted a dispensation so a funeral Mass for most of the 272 dead could be celebrated on Good Friday.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi spoke at a news conference Wednesday in the devastated mountain town of L'Aquila, and said the dead included 16 children, while nine bodies still had to be identified.

The premier said some 17,700 people left homeless by the quake that struck Monday had found shelter in tent camps set up by authorities. Another 10,000 people were housed in hotels along the coast, bringing the overall number of homeless to almost 28,000.

In his weekly public audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI praised the relief operations as an example of how solidarity can help overcome "even the most painful trials."

"As soon as possible, I hope to visit you," the pope, who sent his condolences to the victims earlier this week, told survivors.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the visit was expected to take place soon after the Easter Sunday holiday, and that Benedict does not want to interfere with relief operations.

The magnitude-6.3 quake hit L'Aquila and several towns in central Italy early Monday, leveling buildings and reducing entire blocks to a pile of rubble and dust.

Officials said some 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed in the 26 cities, towns and villages around L'Aquila.

Madonna pledged $500,000 in quake relief, said Fernando Caparso, the mayor of Pacentro, the mountainside village where two of the pop star's grandparents were born.

Strong aftershocks caused further fear for residents, as rescue efforts continued Wednesday. Crews pulled a young woman alive from a collapsed building on Tuesday, about 42 hours after the main quake struck the mountainous region.

Eleonora Calesini, a 20-year-old student, was found alive in the ruins of the five-story building in central L'Aquila, said her grandfather, Renato Calesini, in the seaside town of Mondaini.

"She's safe!" he told The Associated Press, adding that her father had gone to devastated city in the snowcapped Apennine mountains to try to locate the student, who wears a hearing aid. She reportedly had an arm injury but was in good condition otherwise.

"We had lost all hope," provincial police official Germano di Cesare told Sky TG24. But then, searchers located her and shouted "E viva, e viva," or "She's alive, she's alive!" Rescuers and onlookers clapped when she was brought out on a stretcher, wrapped in a blanket.

(Left: Firefighter Roberto Contu hangs from a line to inspect the damaged dome of the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio in L'Aquila, April 8, 2009.)

CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reoprts that, in a nearby village, another astounding moment came when a 98-year-old woman was found alive. She told rescuers she passed her time waiting to be rescued by doing her crochet work, then she asked for a comb before being taken to the hospital.

Much of the rescue work involves an almost surgical lifting of huge blocks of concrete, reports Pizzey. Each one must be removed in a way that doesn't cause others to shift.

The tent cities were slowly taking on the air of places that were to be people's homes for weeks, if not months to come, notes Pizzey.

Residents from the village of Fossa, about six miles from L'Aquila, returned to assess the
damage and retrieve belongings on Wednesday, despite government warnings that buildings may be too dangerous and that new aftershocks were expected.

Ninety percent of Fossa's buildings were severely damaged; four people died there.

The Bonanni family went back to their house with Italian firefighters, in charge with assessing the stability of damaged homes.

Firefighter chief Piero Gonini said the house was too unstable and the whole family would have to carry on sleeping in a van parked in the garden outside the house.

Teams planned to begin surveying those buildings still standing on Wednesday to see if residents could move back in.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome said that since the earthquake Monday there had been 430 aftershocks, including some strong ones.

One of the stronger aftershocks on Tuesday nearly leveled the town of Onna (left), about six miles from L'Aquila. Pizzey reports that Onna residents, still too dazed to panic, walked around clutching whatever heirlooms they had managed to grab before their homes collapsed.

Forty of Onna's 300 residents died in the quake. Several people were still missing. The town, which had been around since the Middle Ages, was reduced to rubble in less than a minute.

"We lost 15 members of our family. Babies and children died," 70-year-old Virgilio Colajanni said as he choked back tears.

The Italians are calling it "The village that disappeared."

[frankinaz]

"Did you capture enough of someone's personal and private grief this time? You people are horrible, showing a picture of someone crying and so heaped upon with grief. Sick. You could show ANYTHING else, but you choose to exploit. Sick."
To whom is YOU? To whom are you referring to as "You?"

[frankinaz]

To whom are you referring is "you?" Also, what about the survivors that are pulled from the rubble days beond their chances of survival?

[apndrgn]

I love pizza, but it is nearly impossible to get it in whole wheat, and it is making my stomach grumble. purely involuntary reflex.

[italian_property]

Italian Eartquake Abruzzo Helpline Emergency people search numbers
Call NOW live on Italian Live RAI 3 TV for information regarding your loved ones.
0039 (0)6-68204190 or send them a text sms to 0039335708923
Furhter details at
http://italianpropertyconsultant.co.uk/2009/04/08/earthquake-abruzzo-helpline-emergency/

[frankinaz]

Since it is so close to Easter, these people need our thoughts, prayers, and if possible, assistance; especially to those who lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy.

[Bkvb810]

I agree that if people would refrain from sinning, this would not have happened. One thing overlooked is that people have been sinning since the stain of Original Sin, with Adam and Eve's disobedience. What a time of reminder of Gods love for us, than around Easter. So, many sins, so few who repent, and even fewer who admit to their sins.

[frankinaz]

"Well if only they refrained from sinning, this would have never happened."
Well then, how do you explain earthquakes that have happened in Italy long
before there were people (and sinners) there?

[CnUHerMeNow]

Did you capture enough of someone's personal and private grief this time? You people are horrible, showing a picture of someone crying and so heaped upon with grief. Sick. You could show ANYTHING else, but you choose to exploit. Sick.