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Rescue workers in Italy running on adrenaline
L'Aquila, Italy (AFP) April 7, 2009 Rescue workers of all stripes who have descended on the central Italian city of L'Aquila have every right to be exhausted nearly 48 hours since the killer earthquake here. "We're a bit tired," admitted Fabrizio Curcio, director of the Civil Protection emergency bureau, which is coordinating rescue work from a gymnasium on the outskirts of L'Aquila. "But frankly, fatigue is not a major concern... We're running on adrenaline," he said, adding matter-of-factly: "There's still a long road ahead of us." The operation's nerve centre is a vast gym a few kilometres (miles) outside of town, where all the rescue workers -- firefighters, police, Red Cross workers, dog handlers and so on -- who have arrived from all over Italy, come for their assignments or a cat nap. "We are still very watchful," Curcio said. "We're still finding bodies. We're trying to do our best. Naturally it's not all perfect, but in such a complex and serious situation we have been able to achieve concrete results quickly, for example by providing 14,000 beds this evening" for the homeless. The firefighters' coordinator Gennaro Tornatore estimated that at least 100 people were rescued thanks to the efficiency of their operation. Meanwhile Marco Cassino is constantly answering the telephone. In charge of the Red Cross teams, he tries to deploy them as strategically as possible. "After nearly 48 hours of intense mobilisation, we'll start new rotations," he said. "Especially given that 70 to 80 percent of our personnel are volunteers with jobs." Visibly exhausted, Cassino adds: "This kind of tragedy is really hard, but our volunteers are trained. Some had a hard time with the lines of bodies at the morgue. But they are monitored psychologically." Cassino was to be relieved for the evening, but planned to get back to work first thing on Wednesday. Was the worst over? "No, you can't say that," he replied. After the initial emergency rescues, the work shifted to the macabre transport of corpses. "And there will probably be more," Cassino said. "But it doesn't end there -- we have to help the survivors, the thousands of people who can't go home." Tornatore agrees: "A big part of the work, the hardest part, has been done. But as soon as there's another tremor like this morning (Tuesday), colleagues working in the rubble are risking their lives." He added: "And then, we're going to have to help people to get their most important belongings back, then secure the streets and check the buildings one by one with the experts. It's not over." What really gets Tornatore, he said, is "the atmosphere in the old town, where daily life has stopped, the people looking at the buildings where they lived without knowing when they will be able to return." Share This Article With Planet Earth
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