Locals in front of the destroyed clock tower of Finale Emilia.
When it comes to earthquakes, being on the periphery of the epicentre is not really newsworthy.
It means I can only report of being woken in the small hours of Sunday morning (4 am) by a strong tremor that left the bedroom light swinging for a few minutes.
I’m relieved to say that there was no casualties in my neighbourhood and no structural damage to local buildings.
Even if I had had the misfortune to live in one of the worst affected area – like the poor folks from in or around Modena or Ferrara – I would probably be one of the many struggling to put the experience into words.
A headline in one of today’s papers quotes one woman in Modena saying “the roof shook and then the walls collapsed” which is about as illuminating as witnesses to a terrorist bomb saying “there was a loud explosion”. Continue reading
