2016 Central Italy Earthquakes: Preliminary Results Based on Field Surveys

The seismic events which hit Central Italy on August 24, October 26 and October 30 2016 have caused casualties and major damage mostly to buildings and architectural heritage in a relatively large area of the Italian regions of Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria. The impact of the two earthquakes of August 24th 2016 was highly destructive: there were 298 victims, 386 injured, about 5000 homeless, and the historical center of Amatrice as well as the villages of Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto in the epicentral area were severely damaged, with a great number of partial and total collapses. The earthquakes happened on 26 and 30 October 2016 contributed to the heavy damage of a great number of other important historical towns. In the aftermath of the seismic events the Italian Department of Civil Protection (DPC) started the activity of field surveys in order to assess the usability of public and private buildings. Together with this activity, the authors had the possibility to perform field surveys in some of the most affected sites. In this paper, an overview of the damages observed in the field surveys is given, providing the damage map of the town of Amatrice and some elaboration of the results.