On 6Th April 2009, at 03 30(Singapore time, 09 30), an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 struck close to L'Aquila. It left more than 130 people dead, making up to 50,000 homeless. Altogether, 26 towns and cities have been destroyed. Most of them came from L’Aquila; others came from the surrounding towns and villages in the Abruzzo region. L'Aquila is a 13th century mountain city about 100km east of Rome. Around 3,000 to 10,000 buildings may have been damaged. Weeks before this disaster, a scientist has predicted this based on the concentrations of radon gas found around seismically active areas.
Bemused and confused locals can be seen wrapped in blankets and carrying their personal belongings in suitcases walking, like a stream of refugees, through the devastation. The earthquake lasted just 30 seconds, yet the extent of its damage is far greater than what it ought to be. (Video of damage-http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7984867.stm)
Italy lies on 2 fault lines. It has its fair share of earthquakes in the past 30 years. It has 2 major earthquakes in the past 30 years, one in 1997 and 1980. More than 40,000 people lost their homes and 13 die in a series of earthquakes in the 1997 earthquake while the 1980 earthquake claimed 2,375 lives and injured 7,5000 and it has a magnitude of 6.9 on the Richter scale. The epicenter is at Eboli, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Naples, and damage had been widespread.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi declared a national emergency, and has pledged to seek hundreds of millions of Euros in EU disaster funds for this earthquake.

He is already scrambling for funds to cope with an economic crisis, and said his cabinet would provide 30 million Euros ($40.60 million) for immediate assistance and vowed to rebuild L'Aquila in 28 months.
Earthquakes at the convergent or transform boundaries can be very dangerous. One possible reason for this earthquake could be because of its positioning near the boundary lines. As plates converge, one is usually drawn slowly underneath the other but they often slide past each other sideways. Sometimes, plates can be stuck, building up pressure over time as they are pushed in separate directions. The pressure then becomes too much, then they violently moved away.
I think some people must be in charge of observing the situation of Italy’s land, the sea, the movement, any suspicious movement then they could report to the seismologists. The seismologists can then study it in detail and send out any warning to the government, which the government can then set up an evacuation plan to safely evacuate the residents in the danger zones. The government must not safe back on using good quality material to build their buildings as these can last for a longer time than inferior quality materials, they are definitely more stable. A very good example is the Si-Chuan earthquake, the schools collapsed because of the inferiority of the building materials.




Websites:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7984867.stm
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090406/world-news/earthquake-hits-italy-deaths-reported
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2381585.stm
http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/IT_EAR.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/5113465/LAquila-earthquake-Fault-lines-leave-Italy-prone-to-tremors.html
Book:
Darlene R.Stille(2007)PLATE TECTONICS EARTH'S MOVING CRUST,Compass Point Books,United States of America