Ottawa’s Italian-community is grieving after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake swept through central Italy.
“My brother just happened to be in Italy,” says Joe Calabro, who runs the gelato café Pasticceria on Preston Street. “He was in Rome, and I know they felt the impact there.”
Calabro says his family is safe, but he is still worried. “Not only for family but for the people there.”
Franco Sdao listened closely to news coming out of Italy as rescue efforts continued throughout the day. “I just heard on radio, an Italian radio a few seconds ago that area getting people still alive.”
“It is so sad,” he says, “All of a sudden I see the pictures and the ambulance people and firemen- it was a tragedy, too many kids involved.”
The earthquake was so strong it was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome. The temblor shook the Lazio region and Umbria and Le Marche on the Adriatic coast, a highly seismic area that has witnessed major quakes in the past.
The death toll stood at 120, but the number of dead and missing was uncertain given the huge number of vacationers in the area for summer's final days.
But the Italian community in Ottawa is already coordinating fundraising efforts. Josephine Palumbo, the president of the National Congress of Italian Canadians here in Ottawa said they will try to bring together as many people as they can to help out. “The community obviously is trying to coordinate efforts, coming together, we've been in contact with the Canadian Red Cross in terms of working with them and coordinating fundraising efforts.”
Italy's Ambassador to Canada, Gian Lorenzo Cornado, says no one from Ottawa was among the victims in the earthquake- but he is overwhelmed by the outreach from Canadians. “it’s really something that touches me deeply to see how strong the since friendship between Canada towards Italy and the Italian people,” he says. Cornado says Italians can consider Canadians as “as close best friends.”
With files from CTV News.
