There are no tents, only 10 technicians at the Municipality for 1,150 requests for checks on buildings, chaos in the population assistance machine. And there is already the first demonstration of the (almost) earthquake victims.
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Three days after the 4.4 earthquake in the Campi Flegrei which generated panic in Pozzuoli, we can draw some initial conclusions, not only on what the damage is, and here it will probably take an incredibly long time, but also on what worked and what didn’t. From the night of the tremors until today, those who have been in the field have been able to notice clear facts that tell us how the rescue machine did not work perfectly. But not only that. Not even the control system is working, much less the welcoming system for the population, in a city of more than one 80 thousand inhabitants who have to deal with over 1,150 reports of damaged buildings, 37 buildings evacuated, and dozens of families who are sleeping in tents.
The emergency: “Pathetic management, institutions not up to par”
“If the scientific bodies warn you that an earthquake of up to 4.5 can occur, a normal prevention would involve taking 10 cases of water, 20 tents, and 2 firefighters, made available to the city on a permanent basis. So, just the minimum. But when even this is not done, it means that the command is not up to the task. It was pathetic management“He explains it like this Ettore Giampaolo of the “Pozzuoli safe” committee. And indeed this photograph can be found in the hours immediately following the earthquake. In the main points of the city, in Via Napoli, at the Port, in Largo Palazzine, in the places where the “waiting areas” will later be set up during the night, there was practically no one. Neither traffic police, nor civil protection, nor other figures. People took to the streetsand as we gathered immediately after the earthquake, for hours they saw no one to tell them what to do. After the last tremor around 10pm, we were able to document the assault by terrified citizens on a Civil Protection vehicle, the first to be seen after hours, which was passing along Via Napoli by chance. People were screaming, “Where is the Mayor?“. Luigi Manzoni we have seen very little of it these days, we would say almost never. Alongside De Luca on the night of the earthquake, he held a press conference the following day. No assembly in the city, no documented visits to the 5 reception areas. He ended up first, as often happens among other things with Mayors, the first local institution, in the crosshairs of the Pozzuoli’s anger. The first tent city at the port was erected around 1:00 am, immediately after Vincenzo De Luca’s quick reassuring visit. But from the next day it was clear that they were not enough. In the one in via Napoli there was also a small road blockade of displaced people because there were also no toilets. Anyone walking around Pozzuoli these days cannot help but notice a phenomenon: there is never traffic. The city emptied. The great escape already took place on the night of May 20th with entire families with dogs and cats in tow leaving the city. Some go to relatives, some go to a B&B, some have even left the province of Naples.
The welcome: “There are no tents”
Those who cannot afford to pay for who knows how many days in an accommodation facility are in tents. But there are also those who don’t have a car. The story told to Fanpage.it by the lawyer is emblematic Maria Nappo: “There are two elderly, disabled people, they are sleeping in a room on the ground floor of a building with mattresses on the floor” He tells us. “Moved by tenderness, I called the Civil Protection to ask if it was possible to put up tents in the newly renovated sports field near Viale Bognar, after a thousand turns of words they clearly told me that there are no tents available that I could install.“. In the reception points it is impossible to find even simple things that cannot be imagined not to be there in such a situation sockets for charging phones and devices and water distribution. Services that would only be activated in the event of an orange alert. And it is precisely this dynamic that makes us understand the inadequacy of the plans prepared. How is it possible to imagine a post-earthquake scenario on yellow alert with hundreds of displaced people, tents in the streets and not even the distribution of water? The regional civil protection machine probably needs to be adjusted. Alongside this situation, there is also the phenomenon to consider who enters the house even if there are barriers, perhaps to take personal effects, but he still does it in structures already declared unusable and therefore dangerous. The very fact that this can happen, as we have seen in recent days, certifies the absence of controls on the streets. Apart from the “heroic” traffic police of the Municipality of Pozzuoli, practically the only ones, albeit few, to be on the streets 24 hours a day, there are no other supports. At the port, near the reception point, you can see some soldiers. But it is legitimate to ask how it is possible that in an emergency situation beyond any reasonable doubt, military engineers, who could be of support, are not sent?
At Porta a Porta by Bruno Vespa there is confusion: instead of the Campi Flegrei there is Vesuvius
Building checks: over 1000 requests and 10 technicians
While 37 buildings have been officially cleared, the requests to check the damage inside the houses has reached 1,150 (data from May 22nd, ed.). There is a toll-free number to call to request intervention, your data is collected and you are put on the list. But when will the controls arrive? Maria Nappo always tells us this: “I called the toll-free number to ask for my house to be checked – tell us – the partitions are absolutely damaged and it is clear that with a new earthquake they could fall, as in other apartments in my building. They told me that with my report they had exceeded 800 requests, and the Municipality only has about ten technicians to carry out this type of checks“. Ten technicians for 1,150 requests, how long will it take to do them all? And above all, in the meantime, what will these people do?”I’ll go to sleep in a hotel, but what will those who can’t afford it do?” asks Mrs. Nappo. As in all disasters the weakest social groups are those who will pay the most for the costs of the emergency. In Pozzuoli they know this well, so much so that another phenomenon is also developing, as reported by a source to Fanpage.it who prefers to remain anonymous. “There are those who have cracks in their house but don’t call the Civil Protection because they would clear out the building and in the meantime they wouldn’t know where to live” he tells us. Reports come to us from the upper part of the city, that of Largo Palazzine, but they are not the only ones. Then there are those who have taken steps to evacuate themselves, like Andrea Ponticelli, who we accompanied to his house, in the Cappuccini area near Via Napoli, to collect his personal effects. “I ran away the night of the earthquake, and it is not safe to stay in this house, I went back to get my personal effects and my computer. There are many cracks and one even on the pillar, it is clear that I cannot stay here, but in the meantime no one has come here to look. Meanwhile I’m leaving” He tells us. The Campania Region is still in the reconnaissance phase of available beds in accommodation facilities in Zone. We are talking about an area, that of the Campi Flegrei, pdeeply touristed where holiday homes and B&Bs have sprung up like mushrooms, and it seems very difficult to imagine ample availability to accommodate the displaced. Then there is another aspect that concerns commercial establishments, such as Mr.’s hairdressing salon Rino Canfora at via Diano 15. The building above was declared unusable, and he found the barriers directly in front of the shop. “No one came, no traffic police, no civil protection, no one, I only found the entrance with the barriers in front” tell us. “I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to reopen and I don’t even know exactly what damage is inside. The truth is that living in Pozzuoli is not safe, I have two children aged 20 and 22, otherwise I would have already left the city“. An observation that institutions at all levels seem to ignore.
The government, through the Minister Nello Musumecispoke about the need for at least 500 million euros for safety (this with still 1000 checks on the buildings to be done) at the same time excluded the “bonus earthquake” strongly requested by the Mayors for preventive safety works on buildings. Musumeci announced safety interventions on around 60 schools and on the prisons of Nisida and Pozzuoli, which has meanwhile been evacuated. Then yesOn the control front, Musumeci has announced 100 technicians with 55 teams. It will be necessary to understand whether all these works, announced today more than 6 months after the famous “Campi Flegrei Decree” which was supposed to carry out inspections and assessments, will be carried out in a reasonable time. Because while the institutions continue to make announcements between the ad hoc decree law and these measures announced after the earthquake of May 20th, an earthquake of the same magnitude as the last one could make the situation infinitely more dramatic. What remains in the field are those who we define as “displaced people” but who perhaps, upon closer inspection, are earthquake victims who no one wants to call that.
