A 6+ Magnitude Earthquake Almost Wipes An Italian Town Off The Map

This sobering photo shows a man standing atop the rubble of what used to be his home in Amatrice, Italy. The small mountain town, along with dozens of villages, was rocked by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake early Wednesday morning. Multiple people (at least 63) were killed in the strong earthquake while countless others remain trapped inside their crumbled homes and businesses. The epicenter of the earthquake occurred in Northia (in the the Umbria region), and the death toll is expected to grow as rescue efforts continue throughout the coming days. Over on social media, Dan Snow tweeted an eerie reminder of how, exactly 1,937 years ago, Mt. Vesuvius (near Naples, Italy) erupted and completely crushed Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Early reports of the earthquake arrived at 5 a.m. local time (the initial quake actually occurred at 3:30 a.m.) with Amatrice Mayor Sergio Pirozzi reporting on radio that “the town isn’t here anymore.” He noted that access roads are no longer operable, and the power is off in the entire town. Pirozzi pleaded for help in the form of heavy equipment to dig into collapsed buildings, which he said contained many of the town’s residents, and ferry the injured to hospitals. An emergency call operator reportedly asked Pirozzi how many of his citizens were deceased, and he could only say, “Look, there are houses that aren’t here anymore. I hope we get some help.”

CNN has officially declared that at least 13 people perished in the earthquake with the number almost certain to rise. The quake was reportedly so strong that residents in Rome felt it from 100 miles away. The Guardian has published before-and-after comparison photos of Amatrice, and the differences are astounding. The below map from the Weather Channel shows the area of Italy that was affected.

(Via The Guardian, CNN & Associated Press)