Today Friuli remembers the 48th anniversary of the earthquake

(ANSA) – UDINE, 06 MAY – Today marks the 48th anniversary of the 6.4 magnitude earthquake which struck Friuli on 6 May 1976 and in particular the middle valley of the Tagliamento River, seriously damaging over one hundred towns in the Provinces of Udine and Pordenone and causing 965 victims. The disastrous earthquake, defined in Friulian as the Orcolat – a monstrous being that local popular tradition indicates as the cause of earthquakes – was felt in almost all of central-northern Italy and was followed by numerous aftershocks, some of which were very strong and equally devastating. A commemoration of the anniversary, organized by the Julia Alpine Brigade, took place on 4 May in the Goi-Pantanali barracks in Gemona, where the earthquake of 6 May 1976 caused the collapse of a building and the death of 29 conscripts. Today in the evening in the Cathedral of Gemona del Friuli, the city hardest hit by the earthquake, a mass will be celebrated in memory of all the victims of the earthquake, in which the president of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Massimiliano Fedriga, and the Regional Councilor for Civil Protection Riccardo Riccardi. It will be an opportunity to remember the solidarity shown at a national and international level in providing first aid to the earthquake-stricken areas and to bring attention to the rebirth, in just over 15 years, of the affected areas thanks to an approach to reconstruction that has been called the “Friuli model”. A path based on the choral and compact mobilization of the Friulian people, led by the mayors, the ecclesial community and the entrepreneurial forces, under the coordination of the Extraordinary Commissioner Giuseppe Zamberletti, who six years after the earthquake was appointed Minister for the Coordination of Civil Protection, resource that emerged and was structured for the first time in Italy precisely after the 1976 earthquake. (ANSA).