“Hurry up. To save those who are still alive, to help those who no longer have anything.” The famous headline in Il Mattino, three days later, will reveal the immense dimension of the tragedy. And delays in rescue. On the evening of November 23, 1980, the earth trembled in Irpinia for 90 seconds, obliterating entire towns and devastating three provinces in particular (Avellino, Salerno and Potenza). The earthquake – magnitude 6.9 – hit a vast area and also caused damage in Naples, where a building collapsed. In all, almost three thousand people died.
It was also a political earthquake. “The whole country was able to unite and, as has happened in other difficult moments, common commitment became the strongest lever to overcome obstacles,” recalled President Mattarella on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary. But it is also true that the disaster made the inefficiency of the relief machine tragically evident, as the head of state at the time, Sandro Pertini, denounced on TV: “There was no immediate relief that should have occurred. Moans and cries of desperation from those buried alive were still rising from the rubble.” And the very long reconstruction phase has become one of the worst examples of speculation on a tragedy.
Today’s almanac, November 23: the earthquake that fatally wounded the South
https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/almanacco-del-giorno/2024/11/23/news/almanacco_accadde_oggi_23_novembre_2024_il_terremoto_dell_irpinia_1980-423696093/?rss