Italy begins to bury its quake dead

updated 3:47 p.m. ET April 8, 2009

L'AQUILA, Italy - Bells tolled in hilltowns across central Italy on Wednesday as the first funerals got under way for victims of Italy's earthquake. The Vatican granted a dispensation so a funeral Mass for most of the 272 dead could be celebrated on Good Friday.

As more bodies were pulled from the rubble, some of the 28,000 homeless spent another day lining up for food and water at tent camps that have sprouted up around this quake-devastated city.

Pope Benedict XVI said he would visit the area soon.

Rescue efforts continued for the 15 people still missing, but officials began discussing rebuilding the fallen region and reopening schools. They stressed it would take a month or two to have a clear idea of the scope of the damage.

"For now the needs are basic. The people in the camps, they don't have toothbrushes, they don't have toothpaste," said Massimo Cialente, mayor of the hard-hit city of L'Aquila. "You can't find a place to buy cigarettes or get a coffee."

The magnitude-6.3 quake hit L'Aquila and several towns covering 230 square miles in central Italy early Monday, leveling buildings and reducing entire blocks to piles of rubble. It was the worst quake to hit Italy in three decades.

The death toll stood at 272, six of whom hadn't been identified, the ANSA news agency reported, citing carabinieri police. Sixteen of the dead were children, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said.

Of the injured, 100 remained in serious condition, he said.

Madonna pledged $500,000 in quake relief, said Fernando Caparso, the mayor of Pacentro, the mountainside village where two of the pop star's grandparents were born.

Survivor's tale
One 98-year-old survivor, rescued by firemen in the hamlet of Tempera, 30 hours after quake, impressed Italy with her fortitude.

Maria D'Antuono said in an interview on private Italia Uno TV network that while she lay in her bed, surrounded by pieces of fallen plaster, she passed the time by crocheting.

When firefighters arrived to help her out of her home, she ate some crackers, and then told her rescuers, "At least let me comb my hair" before she was brought outside.

Two people were arrested for looting Wednesday in the nearly leveled town of Onna, the ANSA news agency said, citing police. They had an estimated $105,000 worth of merchandise.

Berlusconi said looting in the quake zone was on the rise and that the government was considering an increase penalties. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told reporters that anti-looting police patrols would also be stepped up.

Burying the dead
On Wednesday, the first funerals got under way for the victims, including for Giuseppe Chiavaroli, 24, a a soccer player for Fiorentina's lower-division team who was killed along with his girlfriend in Monday's quake.

Relatives and friends gathered in his hometown of Loreto Aprutino, 28 miles from the hard-hit city of L'Aquila, for the funeral Mass.

As church bells tolled and onlookers applauded in the typical Italian gesture of mourning, players from his team carried his casket, his sky-blue soccer jersey draped on top.

"We will try to be strong," his father Tomasso Ciavaroli said.

The Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was to celebrate a funeral Mass for the bulk of the victims on Friday, Vatican officials said.

The Vatican granted a special dispensation for the Mass to be celebrated since Good Friday, which marks Jesus' death by crucifixion, is the only day in the year in which Mass in not celebrated in the Roman Catholic church.

The funeral is expected to be held in an outdoor square at a police training school in L'Aquila, the Vatican said. "At the moment, there is no church in L'Aquila which can be used," because they are all so damaged, said Vatican spokesman the Rev. Ciro Benedettini.

On Wednesday, two bodies were pulled from the partially collapsed dormitory in L'Aquila where two more people were believed still trapped, ANSA reported. The Israeli Embassy confirmed one of the bodies recovered was an Israeli student from Galilee.

Two others were pulled from the wreckage of a building where a 20-year-old woman was rescued late Tuesday, ANSA said.

Video   Seeking quake survivors in Italy April 8: An American family from California searched for relatives in L'Aquila as the death toll from Italy's deadliest earthquake in almost 30 years topped 260. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports. Nightly News

Papal visit
The Vatican said Benedict would visit the affected area sometime after Easter Sunday and that he does not want to interfere with relief operations. The pope praised the aid operations as an example of how solidarity can help overcome "even the most painful trials."

"As soon as possible I hope to visit you," Benedict said Wednesday at the Vatican.

Of the 28,000 people homeless, 17,700 were being housed in tent cities, spending much of their time on line — waiting for food and to use the bathrooms. They spent a second night in chilly mountain temperatures, sometimes without heat in their tents and being jolted by aftershocks.

Conditions were expected to worsen by Thursday, when rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the quake area.

An additional 10,000 people were housed in hotels along the coast.

Since the quake early Monday, some 430 aftershocks have rumbled through the region, including some strong ones, said Marco Olivieri of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology in Rome.

"I slept so badly because I kept feeling the aftershocks," said Daniela Nunut at one of the tent camps set up across the city of L'Aquila. The 46-year Romanian-born woman said she and her companion plan to stay in the tent for now. "What can you do? You can't go into the building."

A supermarket, though, is expected to open on Wednesday and officials were trying to make sure a doctor was available in pharmacies to write prescriptions, Cialente, the mayor, said.

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