Winnipeg's Italian community rallies to help victims of earthquake
Quake hit around 3:30 a.m. in Italy, reduced 3 towns to rubble
Winnipeg's Italian community is heartbroken and rallying to help people devastated by Wednesday's earthquake in central Italy.
"Tragic, it's a tragic situation because you know it affects us Italians in oh so many ways," said Stan Carbone of Winnipeg's Italian Honorary Vice Consulate.
"Even those of us who are not from that part of Italy, we can relate to it because, for the most part, many of us do have family in Italy."
The quake, which hit around 3:30 a.m. in Italy (8:30 p.m. Tuesday in Winnipeg), reduced three towns to rubble. The death toll is currently listed at 73.
Most of Winnipeg's Italian community, which numbers between 16,000 and 20,000 according to Statistics Canada, are from southern Italy. Although only a couple of families are from the region where the earthquake struck, there are nonetheless strong ties to the country, Carbone said.
"I get lots of requests from people who want to go to Italy, who actually want to apply for Italian passports or re-acquire their Italian citizenship," he said. "There is a very strong attachment based on family ties but there's also a genuine interest in the history and culture of Italy."
Mario Audino, acting executive director with the Caboto Centre, Manitoba's Italian-Canadian centre, said he was watching TV last night when the program was interrupted by a news report about the 6.2 magnitude earthquake.
"They really didn't know exactly themselves what was happening. I was, obviously, saddened," he said about watching the first images come in.
Carbone has already contacted the Consul General of Italy in Toronto, indicating the Winnipeg community is ready to do whatever it can to assist in helping victims of the earthquake.
"Fundraising, dinners, … [and] if individuals want to make specific donations through the Red Cross, all those things," he said.
"There's always a tendency, of course, to talk about the buildings because there are immeasurable historic treasures in those towns. But first and foremost it's all about the people, and the survivors."
The community has also helped Italians after past earthquakes, Audino said, noting it's sadly all-too-frequent.
Italy sits on two fault lines, making it one of the most seismically active countries in Europe. In 2009, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck in the same region and killed more than 300 people. A 1997 quake killed a dozen people in the area.