EARTQUAKE  IN IRPINIA

 

Considered the father of the Italian Civil Protection, who died at the age of 85 on January 26th. In addition to the memory, it can be used to consider the state of the current situation of emergency intervention and the culture of prevention in Italy in the light of the last four decades of disasters.

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His figure has been closely linked with the Italian Civil Protection.

Zamberletti  was elected to the Chamber in 1968 and immediately committed himself to the civil defense front, working on a bill that

since 1970 dealt with "rules on the relief of populations affected by disasters" (law n. 996).

 

However, when two earthquakes with significant effects occurred, in Friuli in 1976 (two aftershocks, May 6 and September 15) and in Campania and Basilicata, on November 23, 1980, it was discovered that this law still did not have the implementing regulations and therefore was ineffective.

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The indictment that President Pertini launched in a television appeal after visiting the areas of Irpinia and Basilicata that had not been reached promptly by the rescue, was harsh, and the President wondered why this law had become bogged down in Parliament.

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Zamberletti was appointed extraordinary commissioner to manage the emergency in Friuli, in 1976. In that case two factors positively influenced the management of the emergency: the presence in the area of ​​numerous army barracks, with many conscripts who were immediately employed in the rescue of survivors and in the clearing of rubble, and the fact that Friuli was a region with a special status, a status that allowed it to have greater freedom and autonomy in making decisions. The evacuated were hosted in the accommodation facilities on the Adriatic coast and could commute daily to return to their destroyed countries and follow the operations. In the wake of the good experience of Friuli, Zamberletti was called into question by the Forlani government even after the earthquake of November 23, 1980.

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The size of the catastrophe was greater, the affected area much larger as well as the mass of evacuated people to assist. In this case, the rescue was not rapid, the large army convoys moved badly in the access roads to the Campania and Lucanian Apennines, also taking into account that many roads and bridges had collapsed. To arrive at the appointment of Zamberletti, moreover, it was necessary to wait 48 hours; the earthquake had occurred on Sunday, the Council of Ministers met on Monday and only on Tuesday, on November 25, Zamberletti was operational and took note of the situation in the earthquake zones.

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The months following the November shock in Irpinia were months of convulsive activity, with many critical issues to manage and numerous pressures. Zamberletti tried to apply the same organizational model of Friuli, proposing the "plan S", as an eviction, to move the evacuated to the coast. But the earthquake victims did not accept this plan, given the distance from the coastal villages.

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Then Zamberletti started a long and methodical phase of listening to the earthquake victims communities, establishing a direct relationship with the mayors but not refusing even the confrontation with the assemblies of the earthquake victims and the volunteers, who had created the "popular committees". The idea that unlocked the initial confusion was to twin each municipality earthquake to a region, province or metropolitan city, but also to other nations, in order to rationalize the interventions of the volunteers who were arriving conspicuously in the affected areas bringing large quantities of basic necessities. In addition, to each mayor, the commissioner joined an army general to coordinate the excavations, the removal of corpses and rubble, the placement of tent cities and field canteens.

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