grinner
07-18-2004, 10:11 AM
Authorities pay Italian families to flee threat of new Pompeii
By Bruce Johnston
Rosario Vignola, his wife, Cira, and their two teenage children were in high spirits yesterday, despite bidding farewell to their home beneath the gaze of Mount Vesuvius, where they have lived for 19 years.
They had just received a £20,000 grant from the authorities to encourage them to move from San Giorgio a Cremano. It is one of 18 towns in greater Naples clinging to the volcano's slopes in the so-called Red Zone considered a high risk in the event of an eruption.
Although Vesuvius - which locals often refer to as The Giant, or more simply and ominously as Lui (Him) - seems to be in a slumber, experts say it could erupt at any time. It last blew in 1944, and before that in 1900.
Unlike Mount Etna in Sicily, from which lava streams slowly down in more frequent eruptions, Vesuvius rarely comes to life, but when it does, it tends to explode, often sending out the deadly clouds of gas which overwhelmed Pompeii in AD 79.
In the meantime, nearly 600,000 people continue to lead their lives in its shadow.
The true nature of the task of moving so many people so quickly in a place like Naples recently became clear, when it emerged that four years of evacuation drills had resulted in only a 30 per cent success.
Last year Marco Di Lello, regional councillor for urban planning, came up with the scheme of trying to relocate 10,000 people a year for the next 15 years.
As homes are gradually vacated, they will be given over to tourism, or turned into craft workshops and premises for small businesses being enticed into the area.
Yesterday the family of Mr Vignola, a 40-year-old dental technician, was the first of 1,000 to benefit from £20,000 to help pay for a new home.
Thanks to the scheme the Vignolas are going upmarket, moving from small rented accommodation into a more comfortable house of their own in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, 30 minutes away.
From there Mr Vignola will commute to work in his old area with his daughter, Daniela, 18, who studies at a technical college. His son, Roberto, 16, will commute to Naples.
Mr Vignola said: "The main thing is we will be sleeping safely out of the volcano's reach. Every day there are tremors and a few years ago they became stronger. A specialist told me they could be warnings that people were failing to heed."
Mr Di Lello is undeterred. As well as the 1,000 families "the annual maximum" who have been given the grant, he said another 2,800 had come forward for the same year and were now on a waiting list.
Maria Orsini Natale, an author who lives in the Vesuvius area, said some local people would never go.
"Here life is more intense than elsewhere," she said. "A life here is worth 10 of those lived somewhere else. And anyway, we love 'Him' and have a reverential fear of 'Him'."link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/17/wves17.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/17/ixportal.html)
This is something that I have never truly understood. Why people knowingly live near a volcano or some other reoccuring natural disaster area. Even if the disaster only occures every 50 or so years... there is always a chance for it to occur sooner.
By Bruce Johnston
Rosario Vignola, his wife, Cira, and their two teenage children were in high spirits yesterday, despite bidding farewell to their home beneath the gaze of Mount Vesuvius, where they have lived for 19 years.
They had just received a £20,000 grant from the authorities to encourage them to move from San Giorgio a Cremano. It is one of 18 towns in greater Naples clinging to the volcano's slopes in the so-called Red Zone considered a high risk in the event of an eruption.
Although Vesuvius - which locals often refer to as The Giant, or more simply and ominously as Lui (Him) - seems to be in a slumber, experts say it could erupt at any time. It last blew in 1944, and before that in 1900.
Unlike Mount Etna in Sicily, from which lava streams slowly down in more frequent eruptions, Vesuvius rarely comes to life, but when it does, it tends to explode, often sending out the deadly clouds of gas which overwhelmed Pompeii in AD 79.
In the meantime, nearly 600,000 people continue to lead their lives in its shadow.
The true nature of the task of moving so many people so quickly in a place like Naples recently became clear, when it emerged that four years of evacuation drills had resulted in only a 30 per cent success.
Last year Marco Di Lello, regional councillor for urban planning, came up with the scheme of trying to relocate 10,000 people a year for the next 15 years.
As homes are gradually vacated, they will be given over to tourism, or turned into craft workshops and premises for small businesses being enticed into the area.
Yesterday the family of Mr Vignola, a 40-year-old dental technician, was the first of 1,000 to benefit from £20,000 to help pay for a new home.
Thanks to the scheme the Vignolas are going upmarket, moving from small rented accommodation into a more comfortable house of their own in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, 30 minutes away.
From there Mr Vignola will commute to work in his old area with his daughter, Daniela, 18, who studies at a technical college. His son, Roberto, 16, will commute to Naples.
Mr Vignola said: "The main thing is we will be sleeping safely out of the volcano's reach. Every day there are tremors and a few years ago they became stronger. A specialist told me they could be warnings that people were failing to heed."
Mr Di Lello is undeterred. As well as the 1,000 families "the annual maximum" who have been given the grant, he said another 2,800 had come forward for the same year and were now on a waiting list.
Maria Orsini Natale, an author who lives in the Vesuvius area, said some local people would never go.
"Here life is more intense than elsewhere," she said. "A life here is worth 10 of those lived somewhere else. And anyway, we love 'Him' and have a reverential fear of 'Him'."link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/17/wves17.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/17/ixportal.html)
This is something that I have never truly understood. Why people knowingly live near a volcano or some other reoccuring natural disaster area. Even if the disaster only occures every 50 or so years... there is always a chance for it to occur sooner.