Toll from Italy avalanche climbs to 17 as hopes diminish

Emergency workers at the centre where rescue efforts at the avalanche-entombed Hotel Rigopiano are being co-ordinated rushed to the chopper crash site about 100 kilometres (60 miles) away. Crews on the ground at the scene hugged one another in solidarity.

The death toll from the Jan. 18 avalanche, meanwhile, climbed to 17 on Tuesday with the discovery of 10 more bodies. Twelve people remained missing. Nine people previously had been pulled out alive from the rubble, the last one early Saturday.

Firefighters’ spokesman Alberto Maiolo said search crews aided by excavators finally were able to penetrate the central part of the hotel for the first time and found bodies in the bar and kitchen area.

He said there were no signs of life.

“Logically, hopes fade as time passes, but we are continuing to search and trying to do it as quickly as possible,” he said.

The first funerals were held Tuesday, with crowds gathering under a steady rain outside the hilltop church in Farindola to pay their respects to Alessandro Giancaterino, the hotel’s chief waiter.

Giancaterino, one of the first victims pulled from the wreckage, had offered to stay for a double shift on Jan. 18 to spare a colleague from having to make his way to the hotel through the snow, which was two to three meters (six to 10 feet) high in some places.

“He was a great, hard worker. He was very professional,” said his brother, Massimiliano Giancaterino. “This is the memory that I want to keep of my brother, beyond obviously the private ones that I keep in my heart.”

Prosecutors are investigating whether a series of missed communications, underestimations of risks and delays in responding to days of heavy snowfall contributed to the toll from the avalanche. In addition, they are looking into the original construction of the isolated resort and whether it should have been open for business at all in such conditions.

Giancaterino, who is also a former mayor of Farindola, said it was useless to speculate now, while an investigation was just beginning, about whether the tragedy could have been avoided.

“Now it is not the time for hypothesis,” he said. “It is the time of pain and above all my thoughts go to the friends and relatives of those who are still missing,” he said.

Two of the avalanche’s youngest survivors, Samuel Di Michelangelo and Edoardo Di Carlo, were discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. Officials have confirmed that Edoardo’s parents were killed in the avalanche, while Samuel’s are still unaccounted for.

Before their release, the boys had a video conference call with one of their heroes: Argentine forward Paulo Dybala, one of Italian team Juventus’ standout soccer players.

“He’s very sensitive about these types of things and was happy to participate,” a Juventus spokeswoman said, on customary condition of anonymity.

Two other survivors, Vincenzo Forti and Giorgia Galassi, briefed police for several hours Tuesday and returned to their home on the Adriatic coast in Giulianova.

Galassi told reporters outside her parents’ home that she was reticent to speak publicly about the couple’s ordeal, saying she wanted to respect the people who died and those still waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones.

“I respect them. I have lived the same experience. I knew everyone,” she said, Forti by her side.

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DeCristofaro reported from Penne. AP Writer Colleen Barry contributed from Giulianova, Italy. AP writers Nicole Winfield and Andrew Dampf contributed from Rome.

Pietro Decristofaro And Paolo Santalucia, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Toll from Italy avalanche climbs to 17 as hopes diminish

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