April 2009 Earthquake in Central Italy: initial considerations about reconstruction costs and procedure

Italy is a country frequently struck by earthquakes of medium intensity. In April 2009, an earthquake swarm that had been carrying on for several months reached its climax with an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale. A heavily built-up area of Central Italy was hit with damage to a large number of buildings and very many people affected. In particular, the city of L'Aquila, situated close to the epicentre, is the regional capital with an important old town centre and plenty of industry. The earthquake caused 308 deaths, 1600 injured and damage to more than 40,000 buildings. In May 2012, a new seismic event, comprising 3 tremors of magnitude greater than 5, struck the Emilia-Romagna Region in the north of Italy, causing 17 deaths, hundreds of injured and more than 17,000 homeless. Reconstruction following the 2009 earthquake and regulated by Act No. 77/2009 was handled in a much different way to previous earthquakes. Actions to reconstruct business premises, residential housing, public and monumental buildings were soon implemented with around 22,000 damage repair projects financed in the three years since the earthquake, of which 10,000 have already been completed and 12,000 are in progress. The paper provides some figures regarding the amounts actually spent, with particular reference to the grants received to repair ordinary buildings. A critical analysis has also been made of the statutory solutions adopted in order to finance damage repair operations, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses and the possible scope for improvement.