Floods, Fires and Earthquakes--Natural Disasters Plague Italy

The collapse of the dam in the Dolomite Mountains on Friday, which killed at least 220 people, was one more natural disaster for Italy, whose people in recent years have suffered through floods, fires and earthquakes.

In three terrifying minutes on the night of Oct. 9, 1963, the town of Longarone, in the shadow of Mt. Toc, in northeast Italy, was almost wiped out by a gigantic wave that swept over Vajont Dam following a landslide. The death toll was put at 1,917.

An engineer and a public works official were sentenced to prison after a court heard evidence that the men should have known the area was prone to landslides.

Other catastrophes since 1966 include:

Earthquakes:

--Jan. 14, 1968. A nighttime quake kills 350 people and leaves 45,000 homeless in the geographic triangle of Palermo, Marsala and Agrigento, in the western part of the Mediterranean island of Sicily.

--May 6, 1976. Violent tremors in the northern provinces of Udine and Pordenone kill about 1,000 people and make 100,000 homeless.

--Nov. 23, 1980. Earthquakes in Basilicata, one of Italy’s poorest regions, and Campania-- which encompasses Naples--leave 3,000 dead and 300,000 homeless. Nearly five years later, many victims still live in government-provided trailers.

Fires:

--April 26, 1982. A fire at an antiques exhibition in a 15th-Century building in the Umbrian town of Todi kills 34 people and injures 45.

--Feb. 13, 1983. Fire hits a crowded movie house in the northern industrial city of Turin, killing 64 people.

Floods:

--November, 1966. Floodwaters and mud sweep through an arc from Venice down to Florence and nearly to Rome, routing tens of thousands of people from their homes, killing more than 150.