Citizens’ anger: “Construction sites in escape routes”
The day after the night of fear among the citizens of Pozzuoli there is resignation but above all there is anger. When they wake up, many are walking along the streets with a pillow under their arm. Many, most, preferred to walk away or sleep in the car. Few slept in the tents set up in the reception areas. There is one thing, the citizens say, that created more fear than anything, even the earthquake: people’s panic. “Everyone got in their cars, incredible queues were created, people started arguing to get through – says a citizen – and all of this is a very high risk factor”. The anger this morning is caused above all by the fact that people, “for too long,” have felt uninformed. “But have you seen some escape routes? – they say – they are construction sites. How is it possible that in an area like this the works don’t take place in a very short time? How is it possible that the escape routes are blocked by work in progress. If it had happened in the morning, if it had happened with the schools open, the chaos would have reached unspeakable levels and then there would have been a risk of death, due to the panic, due to the reaction of the people, even before the earthquake.”
Fear and anger in Pozzuoli after the earthquakes: citizens’ protests
The shops are slowly opening this morning, to ensure a day of normality today too. The damage is counted, marbles that have detached from the walls, cracks in the houses. “My house withstood the earthquake of 1980 and subsequent ones but tonight incredible cracks were created – says the owner of a flower shop – yes we slept in the car but then we changed and opened our shop. Here we must continue to work.
We need to live here.”
