Jim Mex ..... Earthquake in Northern Italy

[Hobbyhorse]

Jim I have just seen the TV news with reports of an earthquake in Northern Italy and pictures of a ceramics factory where the roof caved in killing four people. I do hope that this is not where you were working recently.

Rhys

[journeyman]

I saw the same footage Rhys and thought of Jims friends over there. Hope they are all ok. My thoughts are with the people who suffered in this tradgedy. It must have brought back some dark memories for you too Rhys.
Mick

[frieke]

I'm pretty sure Jim was in Verona, so I hope there's no dammage there... I heard in the news they could feel the eartquake in Verona...
So happy Jim is in Mexico for the moment!

[jim_mex]

Hi friends

The earthquake had its epicentre about 80 miles south east of the factory where I'm working. I spoke to one of my friends on the factory who told me that whilst they felt a very strong tremour and then a couple of strong aftershocks shortly afterwards there was no damage done in the immediate area. A number of small villages in the mountains around the quake area weren't so lucky and it was reported that many of the older villages suffered structural damage and at least 3 local churches and a castle of historical significance suffered partial collapses. Its always sad in these cases when there is loss of life and when I saw the initial news report of folks killed in a ceramic factory the thought flashed through my mind ' I hope that wasn't any of my friends'.

Natural disasters of this sort seem to be quite common in Italy. I experienced first hand the devastating floods that hit the north western provinces last year and felt the two strong earthquake tremours in the area of the factory earlier this year. Around 15 years ago the same area that suffered the earthquake the past weekend was hit by a larger earthquake and around 300 folks lost their lives. What to me is amazing is how the locals seem to shrug these occurrences off as acts of God and just go about picking up the threads of their lives in order to get back to normality as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I'm back at home checking in on the news each morning to see if our snorting volcano close to Mexico City is about to blow it's top.

One things for sure. When nature gets riled, no matter where you are, there's not a lot you can do about things.

Thanks very much for the concern folks