AMATRICE, ITALY- In case of an earthquake three buildings in Amatrice were meant to act as shelter, the school, the hospital and Hotel Roma. They have all collapsed. In the aftermath of a tragedy, as many times before Italy has to deal once again with one of it's oldest sicknesses: corruption.
The emerging truth is that the amount of work that was supposed to be done to ensure anti-seismic measures was done poorly or never done at all. The question is, why weren't these safety measures made? Italy after all is a heavily seismic country, especially on what is known as the 'backbone' of Italy. Following the earthquake in l'Aquila in 2009 many neighbouring towns such as Norcia, just 40km from Amatrice ensured the right preventative measures.
The municipality and national authorities have managed this situation so poorly to a point of absurdity. Gabriella Cerami a journalist at Huffington Post Italia exposes in her article that the Civil Protection Plan of Amatrice under the responsibility of the municipality indicates that the areas meant to be used as shelter for civilians are the school and the hospital. However they were the most damaged buildings.
So what happened? Head prosecutor of Rieti Giuseppe Saieva recalls his first reaction when walking into the centre of Amatrice. Amongst the initial chaos of rescue teams extracting victims and dust still lingering in the air of the fallen houses, he was building his case. Less than twenty-four hours after the earthquake, Saieva knew the amount of collapsed buildings wasn't due to just shear bad luck. He feared a much more sinister truth.
According to an interview at La Repubblica Mr. Saieva recalls, "Entering the town I saw a crushed villa beneath a canopy of cement...nearby there was a three-story building which had it's partitions walls collapsed upon one another... I had to come to the conclusion that these houses were built upon some sort of budget... it seemed as if [they] used more sand than cement."
These concerns weren't just noticed by Mr. Saieva, but residents, rescue teams and Gherardo Gotti, a civil engineer who pointed out on Facebook the severe construction problems of some buildings and the lack of precautions which lead to never installing earthquake proof structures.
Gotti explains that in case of a natural disaster, there are at least two buildings in Amatrice that had one sole purpose; to remain virtually untouched. Gotti writes, "...the school of Amatrice, as other strategic buildings must have remained intact, by law. In other words, in case of an earthquake they had to remain not only intact but operational...". Gotti's conclusion is that one of the mistakes was building heavy cement roofs on top of weak medieval stone walls. This is why the buildings inevitably collapsed upon themselves like accordions.
Who or what is responsible for all this? Do we blame inadequate and/or superficial management? Are these concerns related to illegal permits? Or is this a result of pure corruption? Mr. Saieva assures further developments will continue after the funerals. His case will include manslaughter and criminal negligence. In time justice will find the answer, as of now it's clear that Amatrice is already one of many cases that encompasses all the problems within Italian public administration.