Genoa Looks To Future One Month After Bridge Disaster

Genoa, Italy, Sept 14 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Sep, 2018 ) :A month after Genoa's Morandi Bridge collapse killed 43 people, the port city is tending to its wounds and those left homeless by the disaster are turning a brave face to the future.

"I was asleep at home that day because I work at night. At 11:36 am I heard a huge noise," said Giovanni Genco, who had to flee his home with his 16-year-old daughter.

"I would never have imagined that it was the bridge. It was raining, there was a storm, I thought it was thunder or maybe an earthquake." Genco, along with his wife, daughter and parents-in-law, was among the hundreds who were evacuated from the at-risk "red zone" under the fragile remains of the bridge.

He was allowed to return once to their home to collect some effects and it will soon be demolished.

"If I go back, I'll cry, for sure," says Genco, tears welling in his eyes. He says Autostrade di Italia, which managed the bridge, "destroyed 20 years of our life" because their home was everything to them.

The 50-year-old steel worker hopes to rent an apartment before the end of the month because "it's hard living in a hotel" in the neighbourhood.

"I grew up here, I have my friends here, my football club, everything. I've been in Genoa for 30 years and I've lived here for 30 years, this is my life." Nevertheless, some businesses near the "red zone" are suffering because of the difficult access.

"We're on the brink, very few people come now," said Giuseppe Celestri, 64, who works at a building supplies shop near the danger zone.

"I'm OK, I'm nearly retired, but we have two young people with families."Genoa aquarium, Europe's largest, saw attendance drop by 50 percent immediately after the August 14 disaster, before it picked up again, said director Giorgio Bertolina.

"Genoa is not as isolated as people might think," he said.