The earthquake struck an area of approximately 5,500
square km in the middle valley of the Tagliamento River. It destroyed 137
Municipalities, mainly in the Provinces of Udine and Pordenone, affecting a
total population of approximately 500,000 inhabitants.
On the night of May 6, the rescuers found themselves
facing an unrecognisable landscape made up of collapsed houses, as well as dead
and injured people. The first rescue columns set off immediately, two hours
after the shock, and the military had already reached the first towns and
villages. Hundreds of young people from across the entire Region rushed to the
affected places by every means, even on foot if the roads were cut off. On
site, teams were formed and coordinated by the mayors and made up of firefighters,
the army, and the Alpini mountain troops. It was immediately necessary to
locate and assist the injured, then priority was given to operations to make
houses safe and to clear the roads. The first aid efforts were rapid, but
inevitably unorganised, also because all electrical and telephone lines were
put out of service. It was only during the night, with the help of amateur
radio operators, that the extent of the damage and the degree of destruction
caused by the earthquake became clear.
On May 7, Giuseppe Zamberletti arrived in Udine,
appointed Special Commissioner by the then Prime Minister Aldo Moro, as
provided for by Italian Law n. 996 dated December 8 1970. The Regional
Government and the mayors of the affected Municipalities immediately began
working closely with the Commissioner: the initial coordination of relief
efforts was entrusted to the National Fire Brigade, which had already been
involved since 1970 in planning relief and assistance for populations affected
by disasters. They were responsible for dispatching the various teams and the
initial distribution of food, medical supplies and comfort items, following the
tables and maps posted in the prefecture in Udine, which indicated the
municipalities affected and the need for doctors, ambulances, medicines, tents,
food and clothing. The immediate task was to provide over 70,000 meals a day.
The Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana – CRI) and
the Green Cross of Turin also took immediate action. During the night between
May 6 and 7, the general director of the CRI arrived in Udine, immediately
activated the association's committees and subcommittees, launched a
fundraising campaign, and alerted the mobilisation centres of the military
corps and volunteer nurses. Ambulances, refrigerated trucks and other loads of
tents, blankets and camp beds left from Milan, Venice, Rome, Bergamo and Turin.
Thirty large caravans equipped for the transport of plasma and medicines, with
particular attention to insulin, serums and vaccines, also left. In the three
days following the earthquake, the CRI medical staff vaccinated around 90,000
people. Under an agreement with the Region, they also managed the distribution
and delivery of essential supplies to the hardest-hit Municipalities.
Throughout Italy, the Italian Red Cross set up warehouses of long-life food
supplies, ready for distribution. The bodies were buried to prevent epidemics,
and Red Cross personnel, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of the
Interior, carried out the registration of the dead, missing and injured.
In the days
following the earthquake, doctors and specialised personnel also arrived from
other parts of Italy, ensuring that the communities received immediate medical
assistance. Nearly a thousand firefighters took turns working in the area,
alongside thousands of young volunteers, including about 7,000 scouts. Officers
from the National Fire Brigade, with hundreds of vehicles, checked the
stability and safety of the structures damaged by the earthquake. Although the
high seismicity of the area was well known, many of the damaged Municipalities,
including Buja, Gemona and Osoppo, had never been classified as seismic. The
authorities immediately realised that, in addition to the damage caused to
residential buildings, the impact on the industrial sector threatened to bring
the entire area to its knees: over 15,000 workers were expected to lose their
places of employment in the local factories.
Zamberletti later recalled the difficulties of the
early hours: «Despite having a natural point of reference in the Prefectures,
particularly in Udine, the lack or inaccuracy of information on the real scale
of the event and its geographical extent was the cause of the initial
difficulties and confusion. Thanks to the presence in the area (for reasons
entirely unrelated to the earthquakes) of large contingents of the Armed
Forces, the problem was not so much the rapid deployment of operational forces
as the initial uncertainty about the direction to take the arriving aid convoys
and the criteria to be adopted for their distribution. [...] From the moment I
took office at the Prefecture of Udine, I had to immediately imagine the
operational scenario that was necessary to reorganise the initial chaos [...]».
In less than a month, 252 tent camps were set up,
later reduced to 184, with a total of 17,000 tents equipped with related
sanitary facilities, electric lighting, and water supply. To these were added
around one thousand smaller units scattered across the territory. Overall, more
than 116,000 bed places were created. In the initial phase, the decision
prevailed to set up tent camps rather than proceed with an immediate
evacuation, not only because of the popular desire to remain in the area and
avoid encouraging the depopulation of towns, but also because, at that time,
there were no reliable data on the accommodation capacity of coastal areas. As
days passed and after successive aftershocks, it became clear, however, that
the creation of tent camps required the selection of safe areas, far from
damaged building structures. More than 2,000 unsafe buildings were demolished,
including, using explosives, some large structures. The clearance of what
remained of houses, barns, and stables was carried out, the streets of historic
centres were cleared of debris, and sewerage, electrical, and water networks
were restored to operation.
The figures for this first phase of the operation
speak for themselves: 314 kilometres of roads were repaired, eight bridges were
rebuilt, and over 1.8 million cubic metres of rubble and 540 landslides were
removed. The intervention involved over 14,000 soldiers, 64 tonnes of medicines
were distributed, over 2,600 vehicles were used, 216 field kitchens, 60 water
tanks and as many ambulances, 430 tankers, dozens of complete field toilets; 64
helicopters were deployed to ensure that entire urban areas did not remain
isolated, especially in upper Carnia.
The contribution and support of foreign armed forces
was essential: Swiss, German, Austrian, French, American and Canadian, among
whom Captain Ronald McBride deserves special mention. During a rescue
operation, his helicopter crashed in the valley of the Leale torrent in the
Municipality of Trasaghis. The Italian Air Force provided an airlift, while the
Italian Navy sent several helicopters from La Spezia and Ancona; the ship ‘Grado’
left Taranto bound for Trieste. On the night of May 6, the Navy mobilised the
mobile column of the Operational Raiding Group (Gruppo Operativo Incursori –
GOI) and the ‘Bruno Falcomatà’ military maritime hospital in La Spezia with its
field hospital, which was set up in Buja and proved essential in assisting the
wounded. Equally crucial were the mobile kitchens of the GOI, whose cooks
prepared 1,200 meals a day for hospitalised patients and all those who were
unable to provide for themselves and their families.
Towards the end of June, there began to be signs of
economic and industrial recovery: many factories restarted operations thanks to
the fact that the government of Friuli intervened in productive sectors, public
and school construction, promotion of the agricultural and livestock sectors,
and even the promotion of tourism in Friuli. Sanitary and healthcare challenges
were now under control, and services, road networks, telephone, telegraph and
postal communications had been restored, as had the distribution of drinking
water and electricity.
By summer, the situation appeared to have stabilised,
with the rescue and assistance machine well-oiled and connected to the Sector
Operations Centres (Centri Operativi di Settore - COS) and the specific
operations hubs of the various armed forces. The very first phase of the impact
of the earthquake and its effects on the population and the territory ended on
July 25, when the Special Commissioner left Friuli; the effort that had been
made was enormous and had cost many lives, including among the civilian and
military rescue workers and those who had worked during the critical phase. The
second period that followed was marked by assistance to the evacuees in tents
and caravans and the start of repairs to buildings.