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During the wee hours of the morning, an earthquake with a 6.2 magnitude struck central Italy. Italian news reports say the epicenter was near Rieti, about 1.5 hours north of Rome.
What We Know
The town of Amatrice, located in Rome’s region of Lazio, was hit very badly. “The town isn’t there anymore,” said the mayor. Pescara del Tronto, located in Le Marche, was razed to the ground.
La Repubblica has a map of the area where the Amatrice earthquake struck. And I posted a map of all of Italy’s earthquake zones on this site four years ago. Indeed, most of Italy is an earthquake zone, it’s spiny, mountainous middle a testimony of thousands of years of seismic activity.
As I write this, more than 60 people have been found dead in the rubble. Italians across the region have been lining up to donate blood to the Croce Rossa Italiana.
For some real-time updates, photos, videos, and more, check out this Reddit Live feed.
How to Help
The Italian Red Cross has a donation button (via Paypal) on its home page. Furthermore, Italian blogger Paolo Campana has started an initiative to collect donations each time a plate of Amatriciana is ordered. This is a quintessential dish of Rome, with its roots and name in Amatrice. As soon as I find a list of restaurants that are participating in this donation campaign, I will update this post. See my post about #amatricianaXamatrice for more details.
Photo via CNN International on Facebook
