There’s been an earthquake in Italy, with 92 counted dead so far, and more than 30,000 left homeless. I am certain the residents of this area could use some prayers and any other support you might have to offer.
Our thoughts and prayers are with them.
Mine too.
Wull do.
was just thinking of this and the horror our Italian friends are going through. may their night be gentle and the strength needed found to carry on.
tansy
A tragic event, to be sure, but should not prayer requests, since they presume the existence of a god to receive said prayers, be consigned to the Interfaith Cafe.
Prayer does not neccesarily involve a belief in a god. It requires only a belief in the power of concerted thought and a focus of love. Not all who pray do so in any of the many names of G_D. No reason a request for a focus on the wellbeing of others be relegated to an obscure board when it fits right in here.
I lift my own for all involved.
Like in Peter Pan? 
Seriously, though, that’s some scary stuff that went on over there. The ground literally opened up and swallowed whole roads and blocks of buildings. 
Though we may question the benefit of prayers or well-wishes, perhaps we can, at least, spare a moment of compassion to contemplate those peoples’ plight.
djm
My thoughts and good wishes in that direction.
Looks like the Italian authorities managed a swift fairly competent response.
Hoping those casualty figures get revised downward and the number of rescued survivors continues to climb. A couple of students emerged intact just when people thought chances were slim of finding more people alive.
The 12 step organizations of the world have spent the past 60 or so years proving that you don’t have to believe in anything to gain the full effect of prayer: all you have to to accept is that if there is a higher power, it ain’t you. If you can do that, prayer works as well for you as for anyone.
Anyway, we get the drift, don’t we?
There but for the luck of geology go I.
Here’s to supporting what relief we can.
Looks like it didn’t take long for the acrimony to begin:
djm
I see the Pope is praying for the children, good for him, the adults always get too much attention, maybe this time God will listen to him. BTW Giampaolo Giuliani predicted the likely hood of a major quake, how does one prepare for such an event when there is no definite timeline?
6.3
So Cal’s most recent was 2.9 on 1/24/09, as far as I can gather.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAj2PW5hTNg
For individuals, stock a 3-day supply of food and water, a flashlight, a battery powered radio, a first aid kit. Have some cash money because electricity may be cut off, so ATMs and credit card machines may be out of order. Some travel with an emergency kit in their cars in case the roads become impassable and they are away from home.
Authorities can prepare by retrofitting the most critical buildings such as hospitals, stocking police and fire stations with emergency supplies, drawing up contingency plans if utilities and roads are disrupted.
I understand the L’Aquila hospital was built to more modern standards. The problem with predicting these things is there is no way to follow a progression of seismic events that will lead to a specific major event at a specific time. In tropical storms people can be evacuated after indications are that the storm will hit a specific region in a given time frame. That technology does not exist for earthquakes, all the preparations in the world will not save you if your home falls on your head.
No, nothing will save you from that. However, the casualties caused by direct impact usually are not that large, unless the earthquake is huge. The deaths from disease, lack of water can be staggering, and that is preparation is for. Proper preparation and planning might cut the death toll by 95% in some cases. Is that worth doing? Of course, yes.
Assuming you have access to your ESK, emergancy suppy kit. A tornado took off the back of our home years ago, our pantry where we kept our ESK was MIA.
Sure, we get those all the time.
Up to 50,000 now homeless in the L’Aquila region, according to the Red Cross.
We had a 4.3 up here in the north last week…not a big one by any standards, but a sobering reminder of what can happen. I was here for the big (7.1) Loma Prieta quake in '89. No matter how laid back we Californians can get about earthquakes, nothing really prepares you emotionally for something of that magnitude.
From what I’m hearing, a lot of what caused so much death in Italy was the very old buildings and narrow streets in the center of town, and that fact that it struck at night, when people were home sleeping. We had a similar situation here in Santa Cruz in '89…the main difference being that our quake struck in the early evening, so people were awake and able to move as soon as the shaking started. Still, downtown was all but destroyed. Had those been residences instead of businesses, and had the quake struck late at night, I suspect the death toll here would have been much higher than it was.
Redwolf