Quake: provisional wood mini-cities planned like in Abruzzo

(ANSA) - L'Aquila, August 30 - Italian authorities are preparing to build "miniature" towns out of wood to house those affected by the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that hit a mountainous area of central Italy on August 24.
    The wooden towns will be based on a plan that includes services such as churches, newspaper stands and bars, and are aimed at keeping communities united and making sure that survivors do not abandon their badly damaged villages.
    A mass funeral was held on Tuesday evening for some 37 of the 292 victims of the earthquake in the village of Amatrice, which sustained by far the greatest losses with 231 confirmed dead.
    The housing solution, known as "Map", is similar to a system adopted in the aftermath of the April 2009 earthquake in the area of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region, which housed about 5,000 people. Luigi Calvisi, a former mayor of the small town of Fossa which was hit by the 2009 earthquake, said following the system helped keep people together.
    "My doubt was: if we just build houses, if we do not come up with something else, where will we all meet? For that reason, we designed a complete project" he said. "Our village is different to others: it has a central square, a playground, a church, a pharmacy… a bar, a grocery, a football field, and then 150 houses with 150 gardens," he said.
    He added that he hoped the system could become a model for Amatrice. Other towns badly affected by the recent earthquake include Accumoli, Arquata del Tronto, Pescara del Tronto and Norcia.