Calgarians try to reach loved ones in earthquake-struck Italy

Many Italians in Calgary are waiting for news of loved ones and gearing up fundraising efforts after an earthquake struck the central Italian region of Abruzzo.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told a television station late Monday that more than 150 people are confirmed dead, and more than 1,500 have been hurt. The quake struck before dawn Monday near the medieval town of L'Aquila, about 110 kilometres northeast of Rome.

Ennio Ricci, an executive member of the Calgary Italian Club, managed to get through the jammed phone lines on Monday morning and reached his cousin who was standing in the snow on her cellphone.

"They are scared. They cannot go back inside the house. They can only go in to pick up their survival stuff and leave. They got to go back out until things settle down, because there's going to be aftershock," he said.

More than 15,000 buildings have been declared off limits. A university dormitory and a hotel were among the thousands of buildings destroyed.

Ricci says an emergency meeting has already been called at the northeast club to organizing fundraising to send financial support to the region as soon as possible.

"We are so far away. We are helpless," said Ricci as he waits for news of other cousins and his elderly in-laws who live in Abruzzo.

Riccardo Trabucco, who movedfrom L'Aquila toCalgary fourweeks ago to work for the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada, is still waiting to hear from two of his missing friends.

"They were in L'Aquila that night and maybe I hope they are alive, but they don't have any updates because the [phone] line is destroyed," he said.

Trabucco said he wishes he could comfort his parents who are in L'Aquila.

"They are a bit scared, because maybe there will be other tremors, we don't know, so they are a bit worried," he told CBC News. "Parts of Abruzzo is destroyed. L'Aquila is destroyed."