CASTEL DI SANGRO. Just 130 km divide Naples from Castel di Sangro, an hour and 50 minutes by car. Abruzzo is ready to welcome any displaced people from the Campi Flegrei area subject to intense and worrying bradyseism. A population that lives with the anxiety of those who have an uncertain future. The rescue coordination center convened by the prefect of Naples, Michele of Bari, is constantly gathered in the civil protection operations room of the Prefecture of Naples to monitor the situation and coordinate the forces involved, involved in preparing all the measures to support the population. These also include the possible transfer of three thousand displaced people to Castel di Sangro, a town willing to do its part in this emergency. The Civil Protection of Campania analyzes what is happening underground in the Campi Flegrei and possible scenarios. Those who are subject to an eviction order will be guaranteed more structured accommodation, but it is certain that tents are a temporary solution. Hence the eventual transfer to the town of Alto Sangro.
MAYOR CARUSO
“We are ready! This reception model was already defined last April with civil protection”, says the mayor Angelo Caruso who is also president of the Province of L’Aquila. «40 years after the earthquake of 1884» continues the mayor «we have remembered what others have done for us. Now the time has come, if necessary, to reciprocate, an opportunity to make yourself useful. We are ready to host all 3 thousand people who will arrive in Castel di Sangro, we have safe and sufficient structures and in our operations center the alert is on maximum to welcome the displaced. Our machine is ready and operational in a short time. Between us and Campania there is a common thread that binds us, many tourists have chosen Castel di Sangro for their holidays, without also considering the relationship of choice that binds us to Napoli Calcio which chooses Castel di Sangro for preparation to the championship.”
CIVIL PROTECTION
«We have been working on planning Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei for some time and this has been recognized by the Campania region. The twinning with the municipality of Monte di Procida from where, if the evacuation were to be triggered, the 3 thousand displaced people will arrive was done two or three years ago”, he explains to Center Mauro Casinghini, director of civil protection Abruzzo, who goes into the specifics of the plan: «Transport will take place by road, by coach or by own means of transport. The displaced people will first be conveyed from the Campana region to one point and from there they will arrive in Castel di Sangro where they will be registered and directed to the various available centres. The operation is simple but at the same time complex because there are different variables at play such as, for example, if and when the operation will take place because it is one thing to have it in summer, another in autumn or winter. Not everything can be planned precisely because of the variables including the school-age population. What is certain is that the machine is fully prepared but it must be continually perfected or even updated. We are ready for the lines of actions. Even if there is currently a yellow alert in the Campi Flegrei area, we are ready for an emergency and immediate evacuation.”
THE PLAN IN DETAIL
AND Pierluca Di Gregorio, head of the Pivec Civil Protection in the Castel di Sangro district, to go into specifics: «We are waiting for directives. If the displaced arrive, after a triage at the headquarters of the former Mountain Community in Mannarelli, they will be filtered taking into account family units, elderly people and health problems. The area identified as the first reception point is in the municipality’s sports centre, and in the event of activation it will host two reception hubs, a canteen area, a services area, a recreational area and a medical facility. Then available are the sports hall, the covered tennis courts, some buildings owned by the Municipality, and the chalet in the Sangro park. In 2006, an emergency simulation was carried out in the Campi Flegrei in which Abruzzo participated with a mobile column. We are available to the regional agency for any need.”
The Alto Sangro Civil Protection has also been alerted and with its 51 members is ready as it always has in emergencies to make itself available to the community.
MONTE DI PROCIDA
The municipality is twinned with Abruzzo. A memorandum of understanding was recently signed between the municipality of Castel di Sangro and the Abruzzo Civil Protection Agency on the reception of the population of the Vesuvian red zone in the event of a resumption of the volcanic activity of Vesuvius. The red zone of the Campi Flegrei is the area that geological and historical studies have indicated as the one with the highest probability of being impacted by a pyroclastic flow in the event of an explosive eruption of a certain type. In this case the preventive evacuation of the population is triggered. The municipalities of Pozzuoli, Bacoli, Monte di Procida and Quarto are included in the red zone.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
«The outline of the agreement», says the engineer Elio Frabotta, responsible for the public works, heritage and civil protection sector of the Municipality of Castel di Sangro, «was proposed by the Regional Civil Protection Agency, shared during the preliminary inspection carried out in Castel di Sangro and signed in its final draft». The text says that «the Municipality bases its action on the principle of solidarity by working to affirm the rights of citizens, to overcome economic, social, civil and cultural imbalances, and for the full implementation of the principles of equality and equal social dignity of citizens, of the sexes, and for the complete development of the human person”.
Castel di Sangro, within the Abruzzo region, is the closest and most easily reachable from both the Vesuvian area and the Phlegraean area. The Municipality undertakes: to make the spaces and properties available, ensure compliance with the needs of Civil Protection within 24 hours of formal activation; to keep the spaces and structures in question available until the end of the emergency phase. The Agency undertakes instead to provide compensation for all the costs incurred by the Municipality for the activities undertaken for the occasion and to provide the human resources necessary for the activation and management of the first reception area through the activation of its own staff and of the volunteering component.
On May 9th, upon signing the memorandum of understanding, Mayor Caruso gave the Department of National Civil Protection, represented by Fabrizio Curciothe civic honor of recognition of high merits of the city.
