The devastating 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck the Italian regions Molise and Puglia on October 31, 2002 at 10:32:58 (UTC), has been recovering on its loses. Most of the victims of the earthquake suffered when a school collapsed in the town of San Giuliano di Puglia. 26 of the 51 pupils there died, together with one of their teachers. The children were attending a Halloween party when their school building folded in on them. Other than that, many other building has also collasped.
According to the United States Geological Survey, preliminary moment-tensor solutions for this earthquake imply that the shock occurred as the result of movement on a strike-slip fault. Some geologists have hypothesized that a major component of the relative motion between the African plate and Eurasian plate is accommodated on a north-south, left-lateral, boundary that passes near the epicenter of the earthquake.
The government of Italy reacted fast by setting up an effective Emergency Management and Response Team which coordinated regulatory, policy and technical framework to guarantee the effectiveness and fairness of all the repair of reconstruction works. More than 23,000 buildings were inspected to ensure that it can be used or needed repair. This decision-making about the post-earthquake building usability allowing them to identify possible short-term use of the buildings and if it could be safely use is even a reconstruction. Their work were really notable.
Many people, including myself, strongly believed that in order to minimise damages, we should make sure that all buildings, especially in the earthquake zone, should be constructed using “earthquake-proof” materials. Such accidents usually occurs so fast that we have no time to react thus we should be well-prepared before it even happens. However, our fellow-men has not given up hope thus we should give them support in whatever way we can.
