Italian officials yesterday went to extraordinary lengths to try to debunk an urban legend predicting a devastating earthquake in Rome.
The Civil Protection department posted a dense information packet on its Web site stressing that quakes could not be predicted and that Rome was not particular at risk.
Toll-free numbers had been set aside at city hall to field questions.
The national geophysics institute opened its doors to the public to inform the curious and the concerned about seismology.
The effort was all designed to debunk a purported prediction of a major Roman quake on May 11 this year, attributed to self-taught seismologist Raffaele Bendandi, who died in 1979.
The only problem is Bendandi never made the prediction, said Paola Lagorio, president of the association in charge of Bendandi’s documentation.
Lagorio said there was no evidence in Bendandi’s papers of any such precise a prediction and blamed unidentified forces who wanted to “frighten people and create this situation of panic that is attributed to a prediction Bendandi never made.”
Despite her denials and the concerted effort by seismologists to calm nerves, some Romans took precautionary measures. Italian agriculture lobby Coldiretti reported on Tuesday that a survey of farm-hotels around the capital indicated that many Romans were leaving town for the day.
“One cannot speak of an exodus, but there are cases of entire families that have decided to leave the city for the country,” Coldiretti said in a statement.
Officials blamed the media and viral rumor-mongering on the Internet for fueling fears. On Tuesday, the Rome daily La Repubblica headlined its Rome section “Holiday and exodus, earthquake psychosis,” reporting both official denials of a quake alongside predictions that many offices would be empty that day.
Consumer group Codacons lodged a formal complaint with Rome prosecutors on Tuesday denouncing media outlets that added to the alarm.
That said, there was likely to be an earthquake yesterday: On average, there are 30 earthquakes registered every day in Italy, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology. Rome, however, has only a moderate seismic risk compared with more volatile regions in the Apennine mountains.
The last major quake in the region was the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that struck the central Italian city of L’Aquila and its surroundings on April 6, 2009. More than 300 people were killed in the quake zone. The temblor was felt in Rome, 120km away, but caused no damage in the capital.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese