From: Lastampa.it - \u200b\u200bchronicles
In all 30 survivors, 1,917 people swallowed by the mud
In all 30 survivors, 1,917 people swallowed by the mud
ROME
22:39 pm, October 9, 1963, Spar.
"I was in bed, I was 12, I was waiting for my dad returned with his mother. My dad worked in the dam, was one of the controllers. He started the round at 14, at 22, finished his turn, would have covered as always ten kilometers distant from the country and was going to take my mother, who worked in the center of Spar. You were always a romantic walk on foot to return home together. They were two lovers. I heard Dad come alone, and then immediately leave the car. After 5 minutes, a tremendous thunder, I thought it was the storm. Even my grandmother thought, came into my room and said I close the shutters come on ... did not have time to finish the sentence. It's been a power failure. I felt like my face was pulled by the hair, as was I wanted a hole and suck the room widened and then narrowed. The face like a jellyfish, sticky and pulled. My hands at his sides but I had a rebellion and I raised my arms in front of me I had to touch my face, I thought of not having more. So I saved, I emerged from under the ground, I was blown away, 350 meters away from where was my home, my bed, I was buried by mud and water. But the water do not remember, I remember the wet. Now after 45 years, I always sleep with the window open, I can not have a bath in a tub, drink a glass of water I need to make small sips, I can not breathe. My dream would be to become a dive. "
He tells her that on October 9 to 45 years ago Micaela Coletti, president of the survivors Vajont. 45simo Tomorrow is the anniversary of the disaster that engulfed Vajont 1917 people. They were in 30, the survivors, those left alive from the rubble of mud and debris. Other survivors, because migrants abroad to work, but that night they lost their families. "I remember everything, I was ten, I slept with my brother for three years, my parents were in the other room - another survivor says Gino Mazzorana, vice president of the committee - and suddenly a strong wind, the house was shaking, I was thinking an earthquake. I flew away, I miss my brother from the hands. I made a flight of two hundred meters. I called my mother, 'Help me, take me away' and then three in the morning I saw the lights of the torches of the rescuers, like flames. "
On October 9, 1963 at 22:39 a mass of two square kilometers and about 260 million cubic meters is detached from Mount Toc - 'rotten' in Friuli - and falls into the reservoir created by the dam Vajont. The landslide raised a wave of about 50 million cubic meters of water, which rises to 160 meters and then falls in the basin, and partly beyond the dam and its load of mud and debris crushed the downstream countries: Longarone - that counts for 80% of the victims - the villages of Rivalta, Pirago, Fae and Villanova; the City of Castellavazzo where Codissago was the country most affected; Erto and Casso were spared from the fury of water, but not so close to the villages with 158 deaths Frasègn, heavy, Christ, Pineda, Ceva, Prada, and San Martino Marzana . The construction of the dam was swept away and with it 54 workers.
Around 1500 the bodies recovered, almost half have not been recognized. "I lost two brothers and a sister, my mother, my father - says Micaela yet - have not been found. Only my father was recognized because he had documents in his pocket. " "I lost my brother, my father, my mother - says Gino - he had completed his year 39, three days earlier, had celebrated his birthday. Then they came to my relatives, also from France and no peace with data, have also dug them and we were lucky: we found all three bodies. What my father recognized my grandmother on November 29th, the day of what would have been his 40th birthday. They are all buried in the cemetery of the victims. I would like to be remembered Vajont school books. "
Micaela Coleman was able to return to Longarone the first time in 1987, then six years has returned to live here, Fortugno, near the cemetery of the victims: "The Longarone that there's now do not know. Spar for me are the thirty houses and save the cemetery, there are all the people in my life, is to my country. " The survivors, says the chairman of the Committee, are the other side of the disaster, the hidden one: "For us it is important to remember that until there is the memory Longarone and its people will not be dead." And like other survivors, with the entire burden of this guilt, Micaela stresses that the testimony used to help overcome the psychological trauma: why have gathered the voices of those who had never spoken and are collected in a book, which serve others, "Psychology of the emergency - Vajont case."
Manigrasso Lawrence is a photographer and arrived shortly after the tragedy at Spar, with the team of police officers relief. The first to have taken pictures, "I took the family back, I wanted to respect their grief." "I came that it was still daylight - he says - I got the car because the road was gone. The first thing I saw was a section of track off the ground, twisted around itself as if someone had fun doing a curl. We did not know what had happened, we started with "Spar is allagat. Instead I saw a barren valley, an outline of jagged rubble and timber, among which there were corpses. Later there was a large puddle of water, 50 feet, the fire department with tender pulled out the bodies, like a well. I remember body of a young woman, she was naked, like everyone else. An old man told me quietly that the first air movement brought down the houses, then came down the water with the debris. "
Land with outcrops of rock out, like broken bones, then so much mud mud puddles and then become dust in those holes, "the bodies of people and the poor - continues to toil Manigrasso - what struck me most are the family of the victims, arrived later, abroad: in silence rested her hands on so many coffins, we did not know who it was, but they did, like a caress. " Pierluigi de Cesero is the mayor of Spar, the first-born in 63, but his family has suffered three deaths: "There are two communities: that of someone who has lived Vajont and those who have not lived. Today there are 4100 inhabitants in the municipality and Longarone 2000 people, as before the disaster. Two hundred to three hundred survivors are those who have come out alive from the rubble or were not in Longarone but have lost their families. Those who have seen first Longarone. You see them walking the streets through the eyes of memory. "
Some have gone away, "others, with stones in her heart, stayed behind and rebuilt." There are also many young people do not want to forget, however, that on October 9 and 63 have become "leaders of the memory," and pathways by engaging in efforts to preserve the I remember the disaster. "We must remember that similar tragedies do not have to humiliate future generations - the mayor said - we have nothing to ask, but we must continue the sacredness of the victims, and to realize what the human hand can cause if not respect nature. " For this reason, the Foundation was born Vajont Settlement Agreement between the City of Spar and the Edison Company, for damages caused in the disaster. The Foundation, founded five years ago, organizes courses for engineers, research and scientific studies in the area and on hydrogeological risk, it also boasts international collaborations with Japan and China. The project is to create a permanent laboratory research - says the mayor of Longarone - "because the lesson of Vajont be heard, as so far not done: after the disaster has continued to build on the Piave, and the danger of flooding was not the appropriate place."
Today commemorations of the 45th anniversary of the disaster Vajont Longarone start the morning at City Hall. Then in the afternoon will be laid wreaths at Fortogna, the "cemetery of the victims' and the bishop of Belluno celebrate mass. In the evening a candlelight vigil and 22:39, the hour of tragedy, a moment of silence.
22:39 pm, October 9, 1963, Spar.
"I was in bed, I was 12, I was waiting for my dad returned with his mother. My dad worked in the dam, was one of the controllers. He started the round at 14, at 22, finished his turn, would have covered as always ten kilometers distant from the country and was going to take my mother, who worked in the center of Spar. You were always a romantic walk on foot to return home together. They were two lovers. I heard Dad come alone, and then immediately leave the car. After 5 minutes, a tremendous thunder, I thought it was the storm. Even my grandmother thought, came into my room and said I close the shutters come on ... did not have time to finish the sentence. It's been a power failure. I felt like my face was pulled by the hair, as was I wanted a hole and suck the room widened and then narrowed. The face like a jellyfish, sticky and pulled. My hands at his sides but I had a rebellion and I raised my arms in front of me I had to touch my face, I thought of not having more. So I saved, I emerged from under the ground, I was blown away, 350 meters away from where was my home, my bed, I was buried by mud and water. But the water do not remember, I remember the wet. Now after 45 years, I always sleep with the window open, I can not have a bath in a tub, drink a glass of water I need to make small sips, I can not breathe. My dream would be to become a dive. "
He tells her that on October 9 to 45 years ago Micaela Coletti, president of the survivors Vajont. 45simo Tomorrow is the anniversary of the disaster that engulfed Vajont 1917 people. They were in 30, the survivors, those left alive from the rubble of mud and debris. Other survivors, because migrants abroad to work, but that night they lost their families. "I remember everything, I was ten, I slept with my brother for three years, my parents were in the other room - another survivor says Gino Mazzorana, vice president of the committee - and suddenly a strong wind, the house was shaking, I was thinking an earthquake. I flew away, I miss my brother from the hands. I made a flight of two hundred meters. I called my mother, 'Help me, take me away' and then three in the morning I saw the lights of the torches of the rescuers, like flames. "
On October 9, 1963 at 22:39 a mass of two square kilometers and about 260 million cubic meters is detached from Mount Toc - 'rotten' in Friuli - and falls into the reservoir created by the dam Vajont. The landslide raised a wave of about 50 million cubic meters of water, which rises to 160 meters and then falls in the basin, and partly beyond the dam and its load of mud and debris crushed the downstream countries: Longarone - that counts for 80% of the victims - the villages of Rivalta, Pirago, Fae and Villanova; the City of Castellavazzo where Codissago was the country most affected; Erto and Casso were spared from the fury of water, but not so close to the villages with 158 deaths Frasègn, heavy, Christ, Pineda, Ceva, Prada, and San Martino Marzana . The construction of the dam was swept away and with it 54 workers.
Around 1500 the bodies recovered, almost half have not been recognized. "I lost two brothers and a sister, my mother, my father - says Micaela yet - have not been found. Only my father was recognized because he had documents in his pocket. " "I lost my brother, my father, my mother - says Gino - he had completed his year 39, three days earlier, had celebrated his birthday. Then they came to my relatives, also from France and no peace with data, have also dug them and we were lucky: we found all three bodies. What my father recognized my grandmother on November 29th, the day of what would have been his 40th birthday. They are all buried in the cemetery of the victims. I would like to be remembered Vajont school books. "
Micaela Coleman was able to return to Longarone the first time in 1987, then six years has returned to live here, Fortugno, near the cemetery of the victims: "The Longarone that there's now do not know. Spar for me are the thirty houses and save the cemetery, there are all the people in my life, is to my country. " The survivors, says the chairman of the Committee, are the other side of the disaster, the hidden one: "For us it is important to remember that until there is the memory Longarone and its people will not be dead." And like other survivors, with the entire burden of this guilt, Micaela stresses that the testimony used to help overcome the psychological trauma: why have gathered the voices of those who had never spoken and are collected in a book, which serve others, "Psychology of the emergency - Vajont case."
Manigrasso Lawrence is a photographer and arrived shortly after the tragedy at Spar, with the team of police officers relief. The first to have taken pictures, "I took the family back, I wanted to respect their grief." "I came that it was still daylight - he says - I got the car because the road was gone. The first thing I saw was a section of track off the ground, twisted around itself as if someone had fun doing a curl. We did not know what had happened, we started with "Spar is allagat. Instead I saw a barren valley, an outline of jagged rubble and timber, among which there were corpses. Later there was a large puddle of water, 50 feet, the fire department with tender pulled out the bodies, like a well. I remember body of a young woman, she was naked, like everyone else. An old man told me quietly that the first air movement brought down the houses, then came down the water with the debris. "
Land with outcrops of rock out, like broken bones, then so much mud mud puddles and then become dust in those holes, "the bodies of people and the poor - continues to toil Manigrasso - what struck me most are the family of the victims, arrived later, abroad: in silence rested her hands on so many coffins, we did not know who it was, but they did, like a caress. " Pierluigi de Cesero is the mayor of Spar, the first-born in 63, but his family has suffered three deaths: "There are two communities: that of someone who has lived Vajont and those who have not lived. Today there are 4100 inhabitants in the municipality and Longarone 2000 people, as before the disaster. Two hundred to three hundred survivors are those who have come out alive from the rubble or were not in Longarone but have lost their families. Those who have seen first Longarone. You see them walking the streets through the eyes of memory. "
Some have gone away, "others, with stones in her heart, stayed behind and rebuilt." There are also many young people do not want to forget, however, that on October 9 and 63 have become "leaders of the memory," and pathways by engaging in efforts to preserve the I remember the disaster. "We must remember that similar tragedies do not have to humiliate future generations - the mayor said - we have nothing to ask, but we must continue the sacredness of the victims, and to realize what the human hand can cause if not respect nature. " For this reason, the Foundation was born Vajont Settlement Agreement between the City of Spar and the Edison Company, for damages caused in the disaster. The Foundation, founded five years ago, organizes courses for engineers, research and scientific studies in the area and on hydrogeological risk, it also boasts international collaborations with Japan and China. The project is to create a permanent laboratory research - says the mayor of Longarone - "because the lesson of Vajont be heard, as so far not done: after the disaster has continued to build on the Piave, and the danger of flooding was not the appropriate place."
Today commemorations of the 45th anniversary of the disaster Vajont Longarone start the morning at City Hall. Then in the afternoon will be laid wreaths at Fortogna, the "cemetery of the victims' and the bishop of Belluno celebrate mass. In the evening a candlelight vigil and 22:39, the hour of tragedy, a moment of silence.
