On the one hand the pain, for the two dead women, the many wounded, the destruction. On the other, the happiness of having heard the cry of the 7-month-old baby, pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed house.
On the other hand, the wait for two other children to be rescued, the newborn's little brothers, aged 3 and 5: their refuge was a bed and it is under there that they are still. It's a long night for Casamicciola, the town on the island of Ischia hit by an earthquake – magnitude 4.0 – just before nine last night. It's a night of fear that the earth will shake again and waiting for this very bad story to pass as quickly as possible.
It was 20.57pm last night when the earth started shaking. For the tourists, so many in this period on the green island, and for the residents, the summer has stopped in the worst way. First a roar then the awareness of what was happening. The furnishings that fell, the furniture that moved and then the blackout, the collapses. "It was worse than the 1980 earthquake," says Giovanni. It was a nightmare that slowly took shape. And there are those who are now fleeing from Ischia.
They are the tourists who have literally stormed the first ferry that left for Pozzuoli while there are those who are sleeping on the street, on a bench, waiting for the next ships for Naples.
There are 39 wounded, one of which is very serious. And the dead, two women. And we have experienced the stories of those who, for hours, remained under the rubble: like Alessia, pregnant, and Alessandro, the mother and father of the newborn who made the rescuers scream with joy when he emerged from the rubble. Among the 'miracle victims', there is also another man and an elderly woman who was injured. Stories with happy endings that in no way erase those of the two women who didn't make it: one struck by the rubble of a church, the other whose body was seen under the rubble, there in Piazza Maio where life is death have met.
There were also collapses in the municipality of Forio, but fortunately no one was injured, while a family was blocked for hours due to the collapse of a staircase. The Rizzoli hospital in Lacco Ameno, which had initially been evacuated, has returned to function, and areas have been set up to accommodate the displaced. Meanwhile they pray and wait for the two children hidden under the bed before the house collapses on them.
