Anger, sadness after destruction

Agence France-Presse

"This sun that's shining, it's indecent," cried one resident of the once idyllic village at the foot of the snow-topped Appenine Mountains.

Nearby a few horses grazed under trees in spring bloom, oblivious to dozens of firetrucks and army vehicles dotting the area. Onna's narrow streets have disappeared under the tons of stone, brick and concrete rubble left by Monday's pre-dawn earthquake. The village a few kilometres from the quake's epicenter, the Abruzzo capital L'Aquila, looks like a bomb fell on it, leaving not a single structure standing.

"We have recovered 40 bodies here, including three last night," firefighter Qualizia said. "That was the number of missing that we had reported. So theoretically there is no one still trapped in the rubble here." Further on, large white tents sheltered Onna's newly homeless. Some ventured out to gape at the devastation.

"All of my family survived, and my friends too, but there are so many dead, so many dead in our blighted village," said Silvana, in her 50s. "My husband helped the rescue workers and he pulled bodies out with his bare hands. It's just a nightmare."

Indicating formless heaps of rubble, she sighed: "That was the school, and in that house a 20-year-old kid died when the roof caved in on him." Recalling warnings prompted by tremors in the area a few months ago, Silvana said: "In any case, I don't think they could have prevented this tragedy."

An elderly man, an arm in plaster and a large bandage on his face covered with bloody wounds, approached the security cordon keeping people out of the ruined village and began shouting at a handful of journalists.

"Where's (Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi? This is his fault, why hasn't he passed this damned law against delapidated homes?" he said.

"The government has money but it doesn't spend it where it should. All the houses here were old. Obviously they couldn't withstand the earthquake!" he added before limping away.