Mattarella and Meloni to attend commemoration service in Gemona dedicated to the victims of the 1976 earthquake.<\/p>\n
Half a century\u00a0after one of Italy’s worst natural disasters, the\u00a0nation pauses on Wednesday to remember the earthquake that devastated the northern Friuli region on 6 May 1976.<\/p>\n
The 6.5-magnitude tremor – known locally as the\u00a0Orcolat, the Friulian word for ogre – killed nearly a thousand people and left entire towns in ruins along the foothills north of Udine.<\/p>\n
The earthquake claimed a total of 990 lives, around 400 of them alone in the town of Gemona, which bore the brunt of the destruction. The main shock lasted 59 seconds, but its consequences would shape a generation.<\/p>\n
State ceremony<\/p>\n
Gemona will again be the focal point on Wednesday afternoon when Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella and prime minister Giorgia Meloni attend a commemoration service in the town.<\/p>\n
Friuli-Venezia Giulia’s regional president, Massimiliano Fedriga, described the presence of the country’s top leaders as a testament to the attention the Italian state pays to the history of the region.<\/p>\n
A flypast by the Frecce Tricolori aerobatic jets is scheduled during the ceremony, and Italy has also marked the anniversary by issuing a\u00a0new postage stamp<\/a>\u00a0to commemorate the disaster.<\/p>\n Friuli model<\/p>\n In addition to the terrible loss of life, the earthquake had a devastating impact on the local economy, with around 15,000 workers losing their jobs due to factory destruction or damage.<\/p>\n This prompted authorities to invert the usual order of reconstruction: factories took precedence over homes, with the displaced housed in temporary accommodation.<\/p>\n The so-called “Friuli model” sought to get people back to work as soon as possible and avoid the risk of depopulation in a historically emigrant region.The idea was that without economic activity, there would have been no resources to rebuild sturdier houses, and without houses, there could be no return to community life.<\/p>\n Cinquant\u2019anni fa il\u00a0#terremoto<\/a>\u00a0del\u00a0#Friuli<\/a>. Cost\u00f2 la vita a quasi mille persone e rase al suolo oltre 40 comuni. Epicentro a\u00a0#Gemona<\/a>, dove saranno nel pomeriggio il Capo dello Stato Mattarella e la premier Meloni. Nel video alcuni filmati dell’epoca\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/17l2pmgnDT<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n