2009 L'Aquila Earthquake

              We had a great opportunity to visit the city of L’Aquila to see firsthand the reconstruction that is taking place at a couple palaces and a church. In 2009, an earthquake devastated the region around L’Aquila and a decade later rebuilding is still in process for some buildings. I was in awe to hear that since the buildings are of historical value the construction workers are using the same pieces of the building that was destroyed. This explains why it is taking so long to rebuild the buildings. Plus, the workers are modifying the buildings to withstand future earthquakes.

              An article that I read for class, “Public Sector Corruption and Major Earthquakes: A Potentially Deadly Interaction,” argues that earthquakes do not kill people instead collapsing buildings do. The research team main goal was to demonstrate that corruption in a country will have a higher death toll from an earthquake since contractors will cut corners to save money on construction. The team spent time looking into 344 earthquakes worldwide from 1975-2003 of which three were in Italy. The average number of fatalities was 1,567 with an average level of corruption to be 4.5 on a scale of 1 (extreme corruption) to 7 (little corruption.) Italy had one of the higher death tolls compared to other countries and most likely this is since most of the buildings here was built centuries ago. This is why it is important that the contractors are using strong cement and reinforcing the buildings today to prevent future collapses.

              I was very interested by the fact that the palaces were still own within the same family that has had it for centuries. The intriguing aspect about their reconstruction is that the government is fully paying for it since they are historical buildings. There are so many buildings that need to be rebuilt I can’t help wonder how the people feel about their tax money going to a big palace while many houses are still strap together. In the pictures below you can see construction equipment lining a room in the palace while the other picture is of a regular house being supported by straps waiting to be rebuilt. Even though the earthquake was over ten years ago the region is experiencing the devastating aftermath of natural disasters.