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Subscribe to RSSA 5.8 tremor destroyed a number of buildings and killed at least 15 people. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
Updated at 4:10 p.m. ET: MILAN, Italy -- An earthquake struck northern Italy on Tuesday, killing at least 16 people, damaging buildings and spreading panic among thousands of residents still living in tents after a tremor shook the region just over a week ago.
The 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless in the Emilia Romagna region north of Bologna, one of Italy's most agriculturally and industrially productive areas.
Salmoirago Paolo / EPA
A volunteer helps people evacuate the Tesoreria Comunale and Marino Palace offices in downtown Milan after Tuesday's earthquake.
The United States Geological Survey said the quake, which struck at 9:00 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET), was centered 25 miles northwest of Bologna and was felt across much of northern and central Italy.
Prime Minister Mario Monti said: "I want to assure everyone that the state will do all that it must do, all that is possible to do, as fast as it can to guarantee the return to normality in a region so special, so important, so productive for Italy."
The earthquake was felt from Piedmont in northwestern Italy to Venice in the northeast and as far north as Austria. Dozens of aftershocks hit the area, some registering more than 5.0 in magnitude.
The temblor terrified many of the thousands who have been living in tents or cars since the May 20 quake and created a whole new wave of homeless. Seven people were killed in the earlier quake.
AP Photo / Luca Bruno
A young girl runs outside tents housing people made homeless in a May 20 earthquake in northern Italy. Another deadly quake hit the area on Tuesday.
"I was shaving and I ran out very fast, half dressed," a resident of Sant'Agostino, one of the towns devastated in the quake earlier this month, told AP Television News.
That quake destroyed hundreds of buildings, including ancient churches and castles, and forced more than 7,000 people to sleep outdoors in tents.
It also hit production of some of the area's most internationally famous produce, including Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Farmers estimated the damage to agriculture in one of Italy's most fertile zones at more than 200 million euros (around $251 million).
While Tuesday's quake was about 100 times less intense than the one May 20, its death toll was more than twice as high.
An 6.0 earthquake caused a violent tremor in Italy on Sunday, destroying historic buildings, including a cathedral. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
People trapped under rubble
On Tuesday, officials said operations to rescue people from the rubble had been hampered by disruption to the mobile phone network.
"The town has been largely damaged. There are people under the rubble, we don't know how many," a police officer from Cavezzo told Reuters.
Train services around Bologna, near Modena, were disrupted, media said, and schools and other public buildings had been evacuated as far south as Florence.
"We felt a very strong tremor," said Raffaella Besola, a resident of Bologna.
Television footage on ITV News showed evacuees from the previous quake peering out of shaking tents in disbelief.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Heartfelt condolences for families of those who perished and sympathy with Italians. The earthquake happened in the same area as the previous one one week ago. Epicenter 30 km from Modena at 10 km depth. 3 victims (dead)in Medona,3 victims in San Felice and 2 victims in Mirandola. Previously shattered (partially) blgds crumpled down -in Northern Italy. People sotrmed (ran)out of shops and bldgs in Pisa,Milano and Bologna where the earthquake (5.8 magnitude) felt.
Hope all this recent activity doesn't kick start Mount Vesuvius into action after all it's years of dormancy.
Agreed. It is sad that the Italian PM says that he is only going to do what 'must be done', not all that can be done. Sounds like the anti-government illness in the US has started to spread to Europe.
Yes, interested observer, it sure is slanted towards "get the manufacturing going again" pronto.
Well here is a thought. If this region is so important to production perhaps some other parts of Italy get up and do something.
Unfortunately, as with Italy's earthquake of two years ago, the only assistance sent by the Vatican for "their people" in dire need were their prayers.
After last weeks earthquake the church made funds available for rapid reconstruction. If you hate god that's to bad for you, but the church didn't do anything wrong this time. They are helping people.
Maybe not "this time" leroy2112, but 1 out of 100 ain't 100% bad.
"If you hate god that's to bad for you,..."
And btw, I know the Vatican sees itself as all powerful, but lest you've forgotten or have become confused, a church was not my creator.
Would love to visit Italy. My heartfelt condolences, too, to the families affected. Sovereignly, as time goes on, there will be more but "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."
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Hey, Lucille-4025671, reading what you wrote makes me wonder if you had an earthquake experience, you know what I mean? Wow
Start rebuilding, get the economy going. Mourn the dead, protect the living.
Import the fine wine and cheese. Eat more pasta. Support Italy.
Raymond- in the last week's earthquake Italians lost 230 milliom euros of Parmiagana and Roggero cheese wheels in the warehouses. Buy Italian pasta- salad oil-vino russo et blanco-eat cannolis made with Italian Ricotta cheese. It is a real calamity in Northern Italy.
Those are great pastries you can only fine in real Italian bakeries.
Here in Costa Rica we have quakes often, the newer houses here are built to resist, and apart from things falling off the shelves the buildings remain whole. I don`t see any re-bar in the photos, last week the photo of the wheels of cheese fallen, If the racks had been connected with a support across the top there would not have been the domino effect. even so a terrifying experience.
They didn't use re-bar hundreds of years ago. And as we've discovered, unless re-bar that will not rust is used, rusting re-bar will destroy a building or road. Consequently, roads the Romans built centuries ago will be here long after roads we've built recently.
But in the end, little of this will last. Earth will not have it. Check out this picture of what scientist believe the earth will look like in 50 million years based on current knowledge of plate tectonics. http://www.scotese.com/future.htm
In the future, there will be many more earthquakes.
Have compassion for the people of Modena. They have shown compassion for us.
http://4initalia.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/modena-remembers/
Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Messiah,' and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
15 "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,'a]">[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
22 "If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23 At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.
people get ready , Yeshua is coming , allow His love to forgive you and and repent and learn to love others to make a difference, Father wishes that no one should perish there is life more than eyes can see..everyone is welcome , bad people go to heaven and are accepted , we need to follow Christ, seek to be a disciple, power is Gods strength through even our weakness...freedom in admittance of our sins...than some things can be healed. But this world is passing and someday the Lord will separate the good from evil once again.Only Christ is pure for us...Jesus is Lord and God Creator Word Lamb of God and Savior , I AM...One with Father.
Fool.
Yeah, except there are always earthquakes in various places. It's part of the world God created.
Didn't take long for the religious nut jobs to weigh in on this one! As long as there are people there will be wars and rumors of war, earthquakes in diverse places etc, etc. There in the past 3,000 years not one day gone by where a war of some size is not being fought somewhere.
Ignorance showing it's ugly head again! Earthquakes are quite natural and occur almost everywhere on the planet, it's called plate tectonics. There is no magic, no "god" involved here what you need to do is seek medical help ASAP.
Yes, we've never seen an earthquake in the world before. *rolls eyes* Drink some more Jesus-Juice and call me in the morning.
But now we have wars, quakes and face eating zombies.
I live near Venice.. I felt shaking so hard this morning.. really scary!! Thanks for your words.. I hope this was the last... courage to my Emilian compatriots...
Stop this fracking nonsense now!!! Look at what you evil energy companies are doing to our earth!!!!
Repubs...you're responding to the wrong article. This one is about what Earth is doing to people, not what people are doing to Earth.
hs321: Look up fracking and what it means, and what it IS doing to the earth !
No fracking in Italy, so your mindless comment is just that.
...are the Italians going to charge more scientists for not specifying this quake?
As of the moment there has been no word of the arrest of any Americans charged with causing this event although the prosecutor for the Perugia area has not yet made any final decisions.
keep you moronish comment for the joke section ... and seek mental health ...
A week ago ????????? I see MSN is up to its usual standards of reporting the news as it happesn, NOT ! Condolences to those who lost family and loved ones.
There was a earthquake there last week, many aftershocks and another one today which is the subject of this article.
Read the article Retired.
Prayers for all!
I have to wonder if Italy is about to get a new volcano? There have been many Earthquakes in the area and they are pretty shallow at that. The African plate is diving under the European plate and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if a new volcano erupted in northern Italy.
now that would be hot!
It's terrible there was loss of life, but the last time I was Italy it had a bunch of old buildings. Maybe now they can replace them with more modern, safer buildings.
Tourist love traveling thousands of miles to see earthquake proof strip malls.
thats why we go to italy.....to see old buildings.
and eat pasta thats not overcooked
This is when we should step up and help our actual, not imagined or wannabe friends. Italians are always very welcoming to American visitors and appreciate all we've done for them. Instead of sending guns to people who hate us, send food, clothing and other aid to Italians like we did in Haiti.
Our condolences to those who have lost loved ones. Prayers for them all. Dio sia con voi.
Support of an evil religion has brought gods' wrath.
Muslim?
To all you non believers out there! Your full of baloney! We never had the ability to destroy the world before and now WE DO!>>NUKES! We could our country alone destroy the world in 15 minutes! Thats what Jesus was talking about! And wickedness has increased in the world tremendously, we have bigger and stronger tornadoes then we ever had before, Lots of F-5s! Big hurricanes like Katrina<<she was a monster! Big red blob on radar! And look at all the tornadoes we have been having!!! So many! we never had crap like this before! Look at the world economy look at the tsunamies in Indonesia and Japan! You atheists better get your glasses changed and get a better pair and take a real good look at whats happeneing on this planet lately! Your living in denial! And wearing blinders! Get awake and look around you, read the news, see whats happening! No wonder Jesus said He would come like a thief in the night! To you atheists He sure will come like a thief, why??? Because you guys arent WATCHING!!! You cannot see the SIGNS OF THE TIMES Jesus spoke about! Get AWAKE PEOPLE! Before its too late!
Vesuvius is in the gulf of Napoli which is quite a bit south (and west) of these recent events. It IS concerning, however, that large numbers of people live within the zone that an eruption would affect.
This was intended as a reply to Kman, above...went to wrong thread.
scientists say there may be a correlation between earthquakes, but the quakes were pretty far from Naples
A knowledge of geography DOES help in reading these stories.
Rock, brick and stone structures in general don't hold up well in earthquakes. If you live in an earthquake prone area then build yourself a home made primarily of wood or materials that absorb shock or can move a little without breaking apart.
Everything in Italy is old and falling apart, besides earthquakes helping it. Even their economy is falling apart. This is really not news, unless Obama sends aid borrowed from China.
That part of the world has a high unemployment rate as well.
The end will come regardless of what is said. And, the Bible says there are those that say there is " No God"
That is your free will to say or believe that. That's okay if you call me a " nut" for believing in the Bible. Your
full filling prophecy, just as those who killed Jesus did. All these things that are taking place today were
foretold.And, there's more to come! You can choose to ignore it. We'll what the truth is the end.
The article says "While Tuesday's quake was about 100 times less intense than the one May 20, its death toll was more than twice as high." To help people correctly understand and evaluate earthquake effects, are there any earthquake experts out there to check the math? The May 20 quake was a 6.0, this one was a 5.8. I believe that the moment magnitude scale (Mw) calculates that a 5.8 is less intense than a 6.0 by a factor of 6.4, very much different from a factor of 100. apparently, A one-step increase on the log scale (going from 5 to 6) has a difference in energy by a factor of 32.
There were many reasons this last quake was more fatal: 1. It occurred at a more shallow depth, which can cause more damage with less intensity; 2. It happened at a time of day when many people had just congregated in large buildings for school or work; 3. Many buildings had been damaged by the earlier quake. One woman was seriously injured as she had just been allowed by authorities to briefly enter her severely damaged home to retrieve some belongings.
Our prayers and thoughts are with the victims of this tragedy.
the us can not help these poor people !! we our to busy blowing people up to actually do any good in this world !!!! just think how much good could have done here or anywhere eles with the money we have spent blowing people up !!