ROME — In the darkness under tons of snow, the survivors reached for their only lifeline. From their phones, text messages were punched out to 112, the Italian emergency response number.
“Help,” one couple wrote after their hotel was buried in an earthquake-triggered avalanche, “we’re dying of cold.”
But when rescuers on Thursday finally reached the resort — swallowed by a wall of white that roared down the Gran Sasso mountains in central Italy a day earlier — there was only silence from under the crush of snow, rocks and splintered fir trees.
A handful of survivors waited in what was left of the Hotel Rigopiano. They included a man who was getting something from the family car just when the avalanche hit. Trapped below were his wife and two children. They were among up to 30 people listed as missing.
At least three bodies were found Thursday, as hopes for the others trapped faded hour by hour.
Source:-Washingtonpost
“Help,” one couple wrote after their hotel was buried in an earthquake-triggered avalanche, “we’re dying of cold.”
But when rescuers on Thursday finally reached the resort — swallowed by a wall of white that roared down the Gran Sasso mountains in central Italy a day earlier — there was only silence from under the crush of snow, rocks and splintered fir trees.
A handful of survivors waited in what was left of the Hotel Rigopiano. They included a man who was getting something from the family car just when the avalanche hit. Trapped below were his wife and two children. They were among up to 30 people listed as missing.
At least three bodies were found Thursday, as hopes for the others trapped faded hour by hour.
Source:-Washingtonpost
