On the day following the earthquake of May 6, the
Italian President of the Council of Ministers, Aldo Moro, entrusted the
President of the Regional Executive of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Antonio Comelli,
with delegated authority for the management of reconstruction. Before then, the
State had never assigned such powers to an Italian regional administration,
choosing instead to retain sole responsibility for emergency management through
the appointment of the Undersecretary of the Interior, Giuseppe Zamberletti, as
Special Government Commissioner.
On May 7, the Special Commissioner therefore took
office at the Prefecture in Udine, where he set up the headquarters for the
organisation of operations and the distribution of aid across the
territory. Zamberletti appointed four Deputy
Commissioners to support him: the Prefects of Udine, Domenico Spaziante, and
Pordenone, Mario Arduini; General Mario Rossi, commander of the Mantova
infantry division of the Italian army; and engineer Alessandro Giomi, national
commander of the Fire Brigade. Together, they planned the deployment of the
Sector Operations Centres (COS), which were subsequently established a few days
later in Cividale, Gemona, Majano, Resiutta, Osoppo, San Daniele del Friuli,
Tarcento, Tolmezzo, and Spilimbergo (which was later relocated to Pordenone).
Each centre served approximately ten municipalities and a total population of
40,000 inhabitants.
The COS activities, which were coordinated directly by
the Special Commissioner, involved mayors, regional representatives, and
officers from the Armed Forces and all the realities engaged across the
territory. Many of the mayors had been in office for only one year and
therefore had little experience, as well as lacking the adequate technical
tools required to deal with such an emergency. However, Zamberletti immediately
recognised the valuable contribution they could make in assessing the needs of
their communities. Regardless, they needed support, at least logistically, so
he assigned a military commander to work with each mayor. Once the organisation
had been finalised, it was possible to address a situation that was entirely
unprecedented for everyone involved.
From a healthcare perspective, the situation had also
become critical. Many hospitals, including those in Gemona, Tolmezzo and San
Daniele, had become largely unusable. The healthcare hub in Udine played a
vital role in this context, admitting more than 700 patients within the first
four days. As noted by Franco Perraro, head of Emergency Medicine at the Udine
hospital, in 1976, the region did not display operational uniformity from a
hospital standpoint. However, it was able to rely on the mobilisation of numerous
nurses and doctors from across Italy and abroad. An emergency medical record
containing various data on the general condition of the injured was also
adopted to facilitate the planning of appropriate organisational measures.
On 25 July 1976, the day Zamberletti completed his
role as Special Commissioner, the first phase of the emergency officially
ended, marking the beginning of a gradual return to normality. Despite the
spirit of ‘fasin di bessoi’, which means “we do it ourselves” in the Friulian language, and the immediate action taken by the Region to
repair damaged buildings (Regional Law n. 17 dated June 7 1976), by the end of
August, those affected by the earthquake began to fear that they would have to
spend the winter in tents. The time required to implement the prefabricated
housing plan, which involved installing thousands of small housing units to
accommodate around 30,000 people left homeless, had been underestimated. Those
affected by the earthquake protested and marched in front of regional
government buildings, convinced that the ‘from tents to houses’ slogan had
become unrealistic.
All certainty and hope collapsed on September 11 and
15 when the Orcolat (the name popular tradition has given to the ogre
that lives in the depths of the earth and is responsible for earthquakes)
struck again, destroying much of what had remained standing after the tremors
in May, including repairs that had already been carried out. Friuli was plunged
back into a state of emergency. In this regard, a statement by monsignor
Alfredo Battisti, at the time Archbishop of Udine, became famous: «The
earthquake of May 6 demolished Friuli; the one in September demolished the
Friuli people. The first destroyed houses but left hope; the second seems to
have damaged hope as well».
The numerous shocks recorded in September meant that
the renewed appointment of the Special Commissioner, which had become
inevitable, had to be expedited. Compared with the previous appointment in May,
the Special Commissioner was assigned broader and more extensive authority.
Zamberletti returned to Friuli on September 13, two days before the new
earthquake, which also caught by surprise the parliamentary commission that had
arrived on a visit to the disaster area. Having recalled the Deputy Commissioners
and reactivated the COS, the Commissioner found himself organising the
evacuation of as many as 32,276 people to holiday resorts equipped with
accommodation facilities, such as Grado, Lignano, Bibione, Caorle, Jesolo,
Ravascletto and other municipalities of Carnia. Here, Assistance Departments
were established, operating in close dialogue with the Operational Centres
present in the areas of origin of those affected by the earthquake. These
people were guaranteed accommodation, social and healthcare assistance, and
local services, such as the off-season opening of pharmacies, direct links with
their places of origin, free transport services, school activities in 196
classes for 3,500 pupils, and even the freezing of prices of essential goods.
This was a way to keep communities together in the host towns, ensuring all
services for the time required to set up provisional, prefabricated villages.
It was a race against time. The Commissioner had to
put in place solutions suitable also for evacuees who were unable to move
elsewhere. Among them were farmers, who were obliged to stay in order to care
for livestock, workers employed in continuous-cycle operations, and elderly
people who were emotionally attached to their places of origin. Around 3,000
people, however, remained in tents in the various earthquake-affected
municipalities and were preparing to face the winter. Zamberletti, assisted by
the regional government, the Italian Ministry of the Interior and the
Prefectures, took action to obtain caravans. Through direct purchases, a
solidarity loan subscribed by private individuals, and temporary requisitions,
a total of 5,200 caravans were collected, capable of guaranteeing an overall
total of 15,000 bed places.
The Commissioner immediately understood that the
regional prefabricated housing plan needed to be expanded to speed up the
return of the Friulians and not jeopardise the 1977 tourist season in the areas
hosting earthquake victims. Thus, plans were made to build an additional 10,500
homes in areas identified by the municipal authorities, subject to the opinion
of geologists called in to verify the suitability of the sites. Fifty different
types of semi-permanent housing were installed: single-piece metal containers,
structures with self-supporting panels or modular frames, and prefabricated
wooden buildings. The two programmes, totalling almost 30,000 homes, were
completed in nine months, with over 2,600 housing units being built each month.
Private companies, the National Fire Brigade and army personnel, including the
National Alpini Association (Associazione Nazionale Alpini - ANA), were
involved in the assembly of these structures.
Although Zamberletti had predicted that the earthquake
victims would return by March 31 1977, committing to return the facilities to
hoteliers by the start of the summer season, there was a slight delay in
completing the installations for 350 villages in 91 Municipalities. The gradual
resettlement of people in their places of origin and the related management by
the Commissioner were only finally completed on April 30 of that year, a date
which, in the words of Zamberletti himself, «marked the start of the reconstruction
process and saw an emotional “goodbye” between the people of Friuli and the
many people who had helped and shared with them a season of anguish but also of
commitment and faith in rebirth».
The summer was also marked by a scandal involving
prefabricated buildings. The mayor of Majano and Zamberletti's secretary were
first arrested and then convicted of accepting bribes from the Savona-based
company Precasa, which supplied poor-quality structures with walls that looked
like cardboard and roofs that leaked. On 1 September, following the arrests,
Zamberletti resigned as undersecretary, which was considered appropriate and
accepted by Prime Minister Andreotti, despite general appreciation for the work
of the special commissioner.
As the second and final phase of the emergency
concluded, international solidarity and the importance of decentralised
interventions were recognised as pivotal in helping those affected by the
earthquake to gradually re-establish a sense of normality within the
prefabricated villages. The days were made more enjoyable by social events,
performances by musical groups, dance gatherings and debates. The major
question and fundamental issue, which was clearly present to both communities
and administrators and authorities, was how to rebuild the urban and
architectural fabric of a territory that had been severely affected by the
earthquake.