TIRANA, Aug. 26 – One Albanian died and seven others were injured in the devastating earthquake that hit central Italy this week, the Albanian embassy in Rome has confirmed.
Erjon Toro, 32, an Albanian immigrant living and working in Amatrice, the hardest hit town from the 6.2 magnitude earthquake in the early hours of Wednesday, is among the more than 260 victims.
Toro, a father of two, had been living in Amatrice for the past 15 years. His wife was also seriously injured.
Some 50 Albanian immigrants live and work in Amatrice, where the earthquake claimed more than 200 lives, turning it into a ghost town.
Sister Marjana Lleshi, an Albanian nun who survived the earthquake after being trapped in a convent in Amatrice made international headlines with an iconic picture texting friends while sitting near a victim laid on a ladder.
“I had said ‘adieu,’ ” she said, “and in the end it wasn’t an adieu.”
Albania’s Ambassador to Rome Anila Bitri said the Albanian community in Italy showed great solidarity.
“What I’d like to underline is that we witnessed a miracle of solidarity by Italians who stood by Albanians here in Amatrice. There were also Albanians who came from Rome to help Italians. Albanian men assisted in rescue operations while Albanian mothers donated blood,” the ambassador said.
This week’s earthquake in Italy, was one of the deadliest in the neighboring country after the 2009 quake in the Abruzzo region.
Italy is one of Albania’s strategic partners, the country’s top trading partner and a staunch supporter of Albania’s Euro-Atlantic integration.
Some 500,000 Albanians live and work in the neighboring country across the Adriatic with a key contribution to Albania’s development in the past 25 years of transition through investment and remittances.
Albania is also located in a seismically active area and earthquakes are common. The last destructive quake happened in 1969.
A Word Bank report has warned Albania should introduce a nationwide earthquake insurance program for homeowners compliant with catastrophe risk management requirements.
“Despite being heavily exposed to earthquakes, the earthquake insurance for homeowners is almost non-existing, thus leaving homeowners and the government financially vulnerable to natural disasters,” says the report, describing Albania as highly vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change, with almost all the country falling into a very high seismic zone, and the standards of construction yet leaving much to be desired.
