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Quake funerals begin in Italy as more bodies found
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-09 10:58

Quake funerals begin in Italy as more bodies found
The funeral of earthquake victim Carmelina Iovine, 22, is held in the Italian town of Raiano April 8, 2009. The funeral was held in the town square after its church was damaged. Italy prepared on Wednesday to begin burying some of the 260 people killed in medieval towns flattened by a quake, while rescuers hampered by aftershocks hunted for people who may be buried alive in rubble. [Agencies]
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.

On Wednesday, the first funerals got under way for the victims, including for Giuseppe Chiavaroli, 24, a football player in a lower-division team who was killed along with his girlfriend in Monday's quake.

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As churchbells tolled and onlookers applauded in the typical Italian gesture of mourning, players from his team carried his casket, his sky-blue soccer jersey draped on top.

"We will try to be strong," his father Tomasso Ciavaroli said.

The Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was to celebrate a funeral Mass for the bulk of the victims on Friday, Vatican officials said.

The Vatican granted a special dispensation for the Mass to be celebrated since Good Friday, which marks Jesus' death by crucifixion, is the only day in the year in which Mass in not celebrated in the Roman Catholic church.

The funeral is expected to be held in an outdoor square at a police training school in L'Aquila, the Vatican said. "At the moment, there is no church in L'Aquila which can be used," because they are all so damaged, said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Ciro Benedettini.

On Wednesday, two bodies were pulled from the partially collapsed dormitory in L'Aquila, ANSA reported. The Israeli Embassy confirmed one of the bodies recovered was an Israeli student from Galilee.

Two others were pulled from the wreckage of a building where a 20-year-old woman was rescued late Tuesday, ANSA said.

Quake funerals begin in Italy as more bodies found
People react as the coffin of 24-year-old Giuseppe Chiavaroli, one of the earthquake victims, arrives for the funeral in S. Maria in Piano church in Loreto Aprutino, 130km (81 miles) north of Aquila April 8, 2009. [Agencies]
The Vatican said Benedict would visit the affected area sometime after Easter Sunday and that he does not want to interfere with relief operations. The pope praised the aid operations as an example of how solidarity can help overcome "even the most painful trials."

"As soon as possible I hope to visit you," Benedict said Wednesday at the Vatican.

Of the 28,000 people homeless, 17,700 were being housed in tent cities, spending much of their time on line — waiting for food and to use the bathrooms. They spent a second night in chilly mountain temperatures, sometimes without heat in their tents and being jolted by aftershocks.

After two days of largely clear skies, conditions were expected to worsen by Thursday, when rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the quake area, AccuWeather.com reported.

In addition, an additional 10,000 people were housed in hotels along the coast, bringing the overall number of homeless to almost 28,000, Berlusconi said.

Since the quake early Monday, some 430 aftershocks have rumbled through the region, including some strong ones, said Marco Olivieri of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome.

"I slept so badly because I kept feeling the aftershocks," said Daniela Nunut at one of the tent camps. The 46-year Romanian-born woman said she and her companion plan to stay in the tent for now. "What can you do? You can't go into the building."

A supermarket, though, is expected to open on Wednesday and officials were trying to make sure a doctor was available in pharmacies to write prescriptions, Cialente, the mayor, said.

In another indication that officials were trying to look beyond the immediate crisis, Berlusconi said he was considering asking each of Italy's 100 provinces to pick a reconstruction project around the region to take charge of.

He also said a new town could be built on L'Aquila's outskirts, primarily to house young people. He stressed it would not be an alternative to rebuilding L'Aquila, but rather to add to the city's housing stock.

AIR Worldwide, a specialist in estimating catastrophe risks, said Wednesday that insured losses to residential, commercial and industrial buildings and contents from the earthquake could be as high as euro400 million ($530 million).

Interior Minister Maroni said the rescue efforts would likely continue until Easter Sunday, beyond the period originally indicated by Berlusconi.