Two weeks from the apocalypse that remain in the memory of the Abruzzese as a warning of a nature that rebels linking exceptional events, such as the 20 million tons of fallen snow, to dysfunctions, organizational deficiencies and human errors, which reap victims, desolation and damage the territory for hundreds of millions of euro, of which 450 million estimated only for hydrogeological instability and 170 for private individuals and economic activities. A crescendo of events that shocked the people of Abruzzo, opening a new wound after the earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009, a few months after another earthquake, that of August 2016 between L'Aquila and Teramo, and which culminated in the tragedy of the Rigopiano hotel, overwhelmed by a 120 thousand tons avalanche that caused 29 victims .
The wave of snow and frost announced on January 4 with the arrival of the 'Epiphany storm' is only the prelude to a path that puts a strain on the entire Civil Protection system, despite the recommendations of the then responsible, Fabrizio Curcio, who had invited the citizens to limit travel and the Municipalities to check the emergency plans: the intensity of the snowfall from 5 to 10 January, and, since Epiphany, the wave of frost, have a series of consequences severe both on the coast and inland.
Road traffic and transport, including trains and planes, in tilt due to ice, snow accumulation everywhere - from 40 cm on the coast to two meters inside - trucks blocked on the A14 motorway, electrical blackouts and water shortages for thousands of people , Isolated municipalities, closed schools and public offices, motorists and trucks stuck in closed state roads; there are also the first dead, overwhelmed by the snow and poisoned by the monoxide. There are over 1,600 interventions by the Fire Brigade in the first 48 hours.
From 11 January there is a truce of rainfall, temperatures rise, controversy starts, questions are asked about responsibilities, attempts are made to repair damage to the electricity and water network - operations made difficult by precarious roads everywhere - and to help those who are isolated without water, electricity and food, but there is no more time because a new wave of bad weather comes from January 16 that brings Abruzzo to its knees.
On January 17, while disabled electric utilities peaked at 177 thousand (300 thousand people), the second request for a state of emergency from the Abruzzo Region arrived: the Army also arrived, to shovel the snow; in some areas of the hinterland turbines are needed to clear the snow, while other places can only be reached by helicopter.
The mobile columns of Civil Protection come from all over Italy, but the worst is yet to come. In the night between 17 and 18 the Pescara river and then the Saline river overflow, causing flooding. On January 18 the earth starts to tremble again, with four earthquakes of magnitude greater than 5 in the Aquila area: it is chaos, because there are many rescue operations, and the difficulties to reach the places isolated from the snow, where there are elderly and children , they make everything more complicated. There are many reports, including that of a hotel buried by an avalanche in Farindola (Pescara).
Rescue takes 20 hours to get there and a week to locate survivors and corpses. Meanwhile, the temperatures rise again, the rain arrives and the snow melts freeing two thousand billion liters of water that overwhelm the territory, with landslides and landslides in the following months, forcing some municipalities of the Teramo to evacuate.