Earthquake Triggers Avalanche at Spa in Italian Mountains An avalanche buried a four-star spa hotel in a mountainous earthquake-hit region of central Italy, leaving at least 30 people missing, authorities said on Thursday. The Hotel Rigopiano in the town of Farindola was ripped from its foundation and almost completely covered by a wall of snow and debris up to 35 feet tall, triggered by a series of earthquakes that shook the region Wednesday. The disaster struck in the same mountainous region where a powerful earthquake last summer killed nearly 300 people. As the recovery effort dragged on and no sounds were heard from the pile of snow and rubble, Abruzzo Alpine rescuer Antonio Crocetta told the Italian news agency ANSA that "there are many dead." Footage of the hotel's interior showed hallways filled with snow, skylights cracking beneath the weight of the snow above and walls that had been smashed through by the force of the avalanche. Rescue workers in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, fearful about plummeting night-time temperatures, were in a race against time Thursday searching for survivors after an avalanche of snow, ice and mud flattened a resort hotel with up to 30 guests and staff members inside. "Italian daily La Repubblica reports that one of those texts read, 'Help, help, we're freezing to death,' " Livesay says. One survivor, according to ANSA, told rescuers he was spared by the avalanche because he stepped outside to get something from his car, but that his wife and children were trapped inside. "For the weather, you tell people to stay in their homes, while for the earthquake, citizens must be brought outside. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has urged the authorities to "multiply their efforts" and work to reach trapped people — both in the hotel and in the neighboring hamlets — as quickly as possible.
An Italian rescue official says a number of people have been killed by an avalanche, possibly connected to Wednesday's earthquakes, that buried a ski resort on a slope of the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy's Abruzzo region. About 30 guests and staff were at the hotel. The only survivors are two men who had been outside when the disaster struck.