Earthquake Ferrara, Italy : 6 fatalities, 50 injured and a lot of damage, no more missing people + many updates

Last update: May 20, 2012 at 6:20 pm by By Armand Vervaeck and James Daniell

Most important Earthquake Data:
Magnitude : M6.0
UTC Time : Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 02:03:52 UTC
Local time at epicenter : Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 04:03:52 AM at epicenter
Depth (Hypocenter) : 5.1 km
Geo-location(s) :
7 km NW Finale emilia (pop 15,337)
30 km W Ferrara (pop 131,771)
36 km (22 miles) NNW of Bologna, –

Update 18:20 UTC :  Mantua, Modena, shelters, highways
-150 people have been listed by the Mantua authorities for shelter for the night. They are unable to return to their damaged houses
– Modena has installed temporary shelters for 2000 homeless people
– The regional highway authority was happy to tell the press that NO problems were reported in their regional network of more than 400 bridges, viaducts, tunnels, etc

Update 18:13 UTC :  Rovigo churches,  firefighter,  cultural heritage
– Churches have been closed for further inspection in the Rovigo province.
– A firefighter who fell from a roof when the building he was inspecting during an aftershock collapsed is conscious again. Good news, but a further proof that these people are taking great risks to get close to unstable buildings.
– The vast cultural heritage in between Modena and Ferrara and especially in Emilia Finale has been suffered enormously.

Update 17:54 UTC :  aftershocks, hospital, PM Monti
– We have just counted 64 aftershocks since the mainshock at 02.03 UTC
– Civil protection will be helping with the evacuation of the hospital in Finale Emilia
– Prime Minister Monti, currently in Chicago for the G8 meeting, has said that he will do everything in his power to cope with the situation.  He is constantly updated by the responsible presidents of the damaged provinces.
– The Sant’Agostina area has suffered seriously from the M5.1 aftershock from this afternoon.

Update 17:13 UTC :  anti-looting, missing persons
– Police have organized anti-looting patrols to take care of unattended houses and buildings
– The president of Emilia Romagno has said to the press that nobody is missing anymore, making it probable that the current list of killend and injured people will remain as it is

KEEP FOLLOWING OUR NEWS REPORTS – EARTHQUAKE-REPORT.COM is probably the only specialized earthquake reporting website in the world combining scientific information with human impact information.

Update 16:21 UTC :  displaced people, additional damage after aftershock, power, animals
– Because of some cracks in Mantua’s Palazzo Ducale, the fire department has decided to close the building for the public
– The number of displaced people (people who cannot return to their houses) is currently estimated to be 3,000.
– The M5.1 aftershock was responsible for the additional collapse of a still standing part of the Sant’Agostine town hall
– ENEL, the main Italian power company, said that besides some isolated cases, all users have electricity again.
– Misery for a number of animals too. A number of stables have been collapsed and at least a herd of cows and breeding pigs have been covered by the rubble. We expect more livestock to be in trouble as everybody knows that stables are often in a bad condition.

Update 16:00 UTC : prisoners evacuated, telecommunications and Railway line working again
– Italian Railways have reopened the Bologna – Verona railway route.
– The Modena province has asked the national government to take urgent measures to help the owners of damaged houses and businesses. An extension in time to enter tax forms isd one of them.
– The 200 users cutoff from Telecommunications at Finale Emilia have been reconnected
– 500 prisoners have been evacuated from the Ferrara prison. Some of the prisoners were maffia linked and had to be kept away from others because of testimony programs.

Update 15:27 UTC : Damage will be huge!
Earlier in this article, we have reported to believe that the damage would go into the hundreds of millions of Euro’s. We will have to boost this damage considerably as a lot of factories and buildings may be found unstable to continue producing goods.  This economic damage will be added on top of the structural damage to buildings. James Daniell, an earthquake damage specialist working at Cedim Germany, will certainly be able to produce a very good estimate by tomorrow afternoon.

Update 15:21 UTC : Strong aftershock
A M5.1 aftershock struck the epicenter area at 13:18 UTC (15:18 local time). The depth of the hypocenter was at 8.9 km following USGS. INGV, Italy seismological institute, reports the same Magnitude but a depth of 5.1 km.
These continuous aftershocks are bad news for the people in the greater earthquake area as they will go on for many hours and will last at least until tomorrow, meaning that a lot of people will have to spend the night outside their own houses.  The aftershocks will gradually weaken, but the situation will be at least unstable for a limited number of days. The epicenter of the last aftershock was very close to Ferrara, much closer than the mainshock.  Normally, a M5.1 earthquake is not really damaging, but in combination with already unstable buildings, such shocks will be capable to increase the amount of damage considerably.

List of the deceased (5 in the Ferrara province and 1 in Bologna province)
– Nicholas Cavicchi, 35, resident of San Martino (Ferrara) and killed while working in factory in Sant’Agostino
– Ansaloni Leonardo, 51, resident of Reno Centese (Ferrara) and killed in the same factory as Mr. Cavacchi
– Gerardo Cesaro, 59, resident of Moline.
– Tarik Naouch, 29, residing in Crevalcore. Mr. Naouch was killed in the Ursa factory in Ponte Rodoni di Bondeno
– Nerina Balboni, 103, got a heart attack when she was buried partly by debris
– 37 year old German woman died of a heart attack in Bologna (we are still searching for her identity)
Earthquake-Report.com pays his respects to the family of all the deceased.

Update 12:19 UTC :
-The President of the National Council of Engineers has said that all efforts have now to be invested in more earthquake-resistant buildings. He mentioned especially the need to further stabilize historic buildings, one of the main damaged building types during this earthquake.
– The President of the Lombardy province, Mr. Roberto Formigoni, has joined the plea of the President of Emilia Romagna to call the State of Emergency in the earthquake damaged areas. Mantua, another seriously hit area is part of Lombardy.
– Schools will be closed tomorrow as inspection of school buildings will take place

Update 11:31 UTC :
– The number of people killed directly or indirectly remains the same
– Fifty people have been reported as injured
– The body of Gerardo Cesaro, worker at the Tecopress company has been recovered from below the rubble
– Italian President Napolitano has send his sympathy to the family of the killed people and has also send words of thanks to the  SAR people and all people involved in helping the victims of the earthquake. President Napolitano is constantly updated from the situation by the Italian Civil protection.
– Aftershocks are continue to strike the area.  At 11:13 a M4.2 aftershock made it very clear that the dangerous hours are not over yet. Stronger aftershocks are very exceptional but occur from time to time.
– The President of Emilia-Romagna has asked the National Government to call the state of National Emergency for the area.

Image courtesy INGV Italia – Yellow star : mainshock – yellow circle : M4.1 foreshock – big red circles : aftershocks in between M4 to M5

Update 09:55 UTC : Mr. Gabrielli, chief of the regional Civil Protection has declared that the situation is “under control”. Mr. Gabrielli told the press that he has overflown the greater earthquake area and that he has not seen serious problematic areas. Traffic is going smoothly, infrastructure is almost intact and damage is not widespread.

Update 09:47 UTC :
– Italian Civil Protection is organizing shelters for people who’s houses have been damaged by the earthquake.
– tens of people have been injured during the earthquake. The devastation is not widespread. Only isolated houses and buildings have suffered serious damage. We expect not earthquake-resistant building methods to be one of the major reasons that such serious damage has been inflicted.
– The collapse, partial collapse and damaged historic buildings are currently visited by Civil Protection and Local authorities to become a clear picture of the amount of damage.
– Earthquake-Report.com is increasing the expected amount of damage into the hundreds of millions Euros.  This amount not only includes damage to buildings and historic sites but also to the economy.

Update 09:23 UTC : INGV has reported 41 aftershocks so far, the strongest being a M4.9 at 03:02 UTC (05:02 local Italian time). 5 aftershocks measured M4 or higher and 14 aftershocks in between M3 and M4.

Update 09:15 UTC : The Mantua area was also seriously damaged. The church of Felonica in Mantua was damaged.

Update 09:11 UTC : Many people in the greater epicenter area remain in the streets fearing for aftershocks.

Important Update 08:56 UTC : The death toll has increased to 6 when a worker was found under the rubble of the Tecopress factory at St. Augustine (Ferrara). 4 are considered in earthquake terms as shaking deaths, 2 people have been killed indirectly (see below).

Update 08:47 UTC : Click on the pictures below to see more images of the damage inflicted by this deadly earthquake.

Images courtesy and copyright La Repubblica – Click on the images to see more of them

Update 08:35 UTC :  The Chief of Civil Protection from the Ferrara province has just arrived at the Prefecture office and is now leading an assessment and operations meeting with his staff.
– Based on the many images we have seen so far, the damage will run into at least tens of millions of Euro’s, probably a lot more. Some historic buildings have collapsed completely, others partially. Industrial warehouses have been damaged. So far we have NO immediate numbers of injured, but a lot of people living in damaged houses must have at least minor injures.

Update 08:26 UTC :  To give our readers an idea of the extend of the damage, we have combined a “before” and “after” image of the Castle of Finale Emilio. The angle is not the same, but you can see very good that the towers have almost completely collapsed.  Images courtesy and copyright of its owners, damaged castle from Gianluca Diegoli via twitter and the “before” picture from animoweb.it.

Update 08:18 UTC :  The earthquake was also felt in the neighboring countries. We got I Have Felt It reports from the Alps region, Slovenia and the Cote d’Azur (France).

Update 08:09 UTC :  2 helicopters of the Italian Police are overflying the earthquake hit areas and are trying to locate and to guide SAR forces (Search and Rescue forces) to eventual collapsed or heavily damaged buildings. These overflying helicopters are especially looking for old abandoned houses were often poor families are residing.

Update 08:01 UTC : The Palace of Venice, an historic building in Finale Emilia, badly hit by the earthquake, is partially collapsed. The 11 people from three families who lived there were rescued by SAT personnel.

Update 07:58 UTC : It is still not sure how many people have exactly perished during this earthquake. We have counted 4 so far, but the number may increase slightly. Let us make an overview.
– 2 indirect fatalities (a 37 year old ill woman died probably of an heart attack and a 100 year old person probably from the same)
– a Moroccan worker died in Ponte Rodoni, Bondeno. He worked at Ursa, a polystyrene foam company, and his shift would end at 5.  He was killed when a support beam collapsed on his head.
– 2 Italian workers were killed when a roof from a ceramics manufacturing company collapsed on them. Theur work shift would have ended at 6.
3 shaking deaths and 2 indirect killed people is the sad result so far.

Update 07:45 UTC : A 5 year old child was rescued out of the rubble in a collapsed building in Finale Emilia !

Historic earthquakes map courtesy INGV – earthquake in between M6 and M7

Update 07:32 UTC : The earthquake’s epicenter was located in a area which has no damaging earthquakes since a long time.  We have to go back to 1570 for a major earthquake nearFerrara and to even 1346 for another M6 to M7 earthquake at a distance of approx. 20 km from the current epicenter. From 2002 to 2008 6 smaller earthquakes (less than M4) occurred within a radius of 20 km.

Update 07:17 UTC : A lot of people are asking themselves why an earthquake with (only) a M5.9 Magnitude can inflict such a lot of serious damage.  Not only was this earthquake very shallow (close to the surface), but one of the main factors is that the earthquake occurred in a relatively soft soil area. Soft ground layers are propagating the earthquake waves a lot stronger than areas with harder rocky layers.

Update 06:41 UTC : 2 earthquake of respectively M4.1 and M2.2 were precursors of the damaging M6 mainshock. Since that mainshock, INGV has recorded 12 aftershocks!

Important Update 06:39 UTC : We are sad to tell that a 4th fatality has been reported. We have also a few more details on the killed people. All of the death people are coming from the Ferrara area. 2 people died in a pottery factory in Ferrara. A third person died in the Ferrara Bondeno industrial zone and the 4th victim was a 37 year ill woman who died of an heart attack.

Update : The video below shows the damage to a couple of buildings in the Ferrara area.  The shaking must have been very strong to inflict this kind of damage.

Update : The video below is mainly a picture from a damaged building combined with an interview with the Governor of the Ferrara province (in Italian). The governor talks about a lot of damage to bridges, schools, historic buildings etc. She calls the situation very serious.

Update 06:35 UTC : In San Felice sul Panaro, near Modena, the tower of the fortress collapsed. Another tower went down in Finale Emilia, and a nursing home was evacuated.

Update : Mostly historic buildings have been damaged in the quake. Click here for series of images from La Repubblica.  Some churches and older buildings collapsed completely.

Damage in Northern Italy after the May 20 earthquake – Images courtesy and copyright La Repubblica – Please click on these pictures to see more of them in La Repubblica

Update : The 3 killed people are believed to be 3 farm workers in the Ferrara area

Update : The heavy shaking lated for about 20 seconds

Update : As what can be expected, everybody ran to the streets after feeling the shaking.

Update : A church bell collapsed in Ferrara, in Finale Emilia a church steeple was reported damage, in San Felice Parano a segment of a castle collapsed.

Update : USGS has upgraded the earthquake to 6.0 at a depth of only 5km. The updated PAGER says 73,000 people would felt a severe shaking!! and 178,000 a very strong shaking. Avery bad sign.

Update :  An also strong aftershock M5.1 occurred 59 minutes later

Shaking map courtesy USGS

Update :  The village who has been hit most (MMI VIII) was Camposanto, a little town with 3,000 inhabitants.

for more information, and updates, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2012/05/20/very-strong-shallow-earthquake-kills-at-least-3-people-in-the-mantua-ferrara-and-modena-area-italy/