When the call came, John Gera and his team were ready. For the past few years, Mr Gera has been training a team of search and rescue dogs under the auspices of SOS Malta, working through a range of scenarios backed by his 13 years of experience with the Civil Protection Department. In principle, they were equipped to respond to a disaster within 12 hours. The 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Italy's central Umbria region a few hours before dawn last Wednesday, leaving at least 292 dead and thousands homeless, was their first test. The decision to join the recovery efforts was made almost instantly. With the support of Virtù Ferries, the team was on its way that same afternoon, driving through the night in two-hour shifts to reach the affected regions early on Thursday morning. "The first thing that struck us was the devastation the earthquake had left behind," Mr Gera told the Times of Malta yesterday, a day after returning to Malta at the end of the mission. "There are whole villages that have been wiped out. Many of the roads and bridges were closed or heavily damaged. "Residents were housed in tents by the Italian Civil Protection Department, but many had nothing left...
from timesofmalta.com http://ift.tt/2bQBdt8
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