Avalanche buries Italian hotel; 'Many dead' with at least 30 missing

ROME — Rescue workers in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, fearful about plummeting night-time temperatures, were in a race against time Thursday searching for survivors after an avalanche of snow, ice and mud flattened a resort hotel with up to 30 guests and staff members inside.

Two bodies were recovered in the piles of debris, but hopes of finding people alive were hampered by the agonizingly slow process of getting heavy equipment to the scene.

"The sun is starting to set here and the temperatures are dropping," said Giovanni Bianchi, a commander with Italy's civil protection. "The worry is that if there's a survivor we haven't found yet, they could risk freezing."

As the recovery effort dragged on and no sounds were heard from the pile of snow and rubble, Abruzzo Alpine rescuer Antonio Crocetta told the Italian news agency ANSA that "there are many dead."

The Hotel Rigopiano in the town of Farindola was ripped from its foundation and almost completely covered by a wall of snow and debris up to 35 feet tall, triggered by a series of earthquakes that shook the region Wednesday.

Heavy snowfall kept ambulances from approaching within 5 miles of the property. Some rescue workers arrived by foot, snowmobile and helicopter, local media reported.

Four quakes rock central Italy in massive snowstorm

Workers were able to access parts of the structure and documented hallways crammed with snow, ice and debris, along with the remnants of festive decorations.

One rescue worker who spoke on local TV station RAI said there was no sign of life in the decimated hotel. Antonio Di Marco, president of the provincial government, said on social media that two people were found alive.

One of them, Giampaolo Parete, a 38-year-old tourist, said he was saved because he left the hotel to retrieve something from his car parked outside. His wife and two children were inside the building, he said.

Premier Paolo Gentiloni urged authorities to redouble rescue efforts as he sought to deflect criticism. He told reporters Thursday that the priority is to reach all isolated towns and hamlets buried under snowfall for days before being jolted by the powerful quakes Wednesday.

Residents have been complaining of being left without electricity because of what Gentiloni called a “record snowfall.” Criticism has also come in about the response time to reach the buried hotel.

"We have been abandoned by everyone!” marveled one resident from the province of Teramo, Daiana Nguyen, on Sky TG24. “They talk about sending in the army: Thirty to 40 men came with shovels. We need heavy machinery.”

Nguyen said people have been stuck in their homes for days.

“Help, we’re dying of cold,” one couple wrote rescuers, according to the ANSA news agency. Another man, identified by news reports as Fabio Salzetta, sent a text message saying he escaped with a maintenance worker, but that others were trapped inside.

Corriere della Sera quoted the message as saying: “Some walls were knocked down.” And: “I’m outside with a maintenance worker but you can’t see anything of the hotel, there’s only a wall of snow in front of me.”

Wednesday’s earthquakes did not directly impact Farindola, but the temblors apparently unsettled snow on the slopes of the majestic Gran Sasso, a 9,554-foot-tall peak that dominates the region.

Because of its proximity to Rome, Italy’s capital and largest city, the area around the Gran Sasso is popular with tourists on day trips or overnight excursions.

The weather in the area had been particularly good for skiing in recent days — cold and crisp with heavy snowfall. Before the avalanche, staff members at the four-star hotel tweeted: “A dream Tuesday at Rigopiano … the snow is giving us a spectacular panorama.”

Gilberto Petrucci, municipal assessor for the nearby town of Penne, said the entire region is suffering.

“We’re on our knees in the communities around here, we can’t take much more,” Petrucci said. He added that heavy snow has isolated Penne’s 13,000 residents from other cities.

Authorities in the area closed schools and most non-essential business until at least Monday in the wake of the earthquakes and the avalanche. Freezing temperatures and snowfall are forecast until the weekend.

Wednesday’s earthquakes — at least a dozen that measured between magnitude 5.1 and 5.7 — were the third round of temblors in Abruzzo in five months. The region is still recovering from a series of earthquakes in August that killed more than 200 people. In Amatrice, close to the epicenter of the latest quakes, the Renaissance-era bell tower at the church of Sant-Agostino collapsed after being severely damaged in last year’s disaster.

The latest quakes left several hundred people homeless and cut electricity to more than 100,000 homes in the region.

Contributing: Associated Press