Amatrice's Slow Reconstruction Haunts Italy's Quake Towns

As residents gather in Amatrice on Monday for a mass marking the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the central Italian town, the Guardian reports that the reconstruction is far from complete. According to the newspaper, as of April, two-thirds of planned public projects in Amatrice had yet to begin, rising to seven in 10 in the hardest-hit areas.

The 2016 quake struck on 24 August, killing 299 people across the central Apennines, including 235 in Amatrice alone. The Guardian's report, published on the eve of the anniversary, paints a picture of a town still waiting for the state to deliver on its promises of rebuilding.

For the neighbouring region of Abruzzo, the news carries a particular weight. The 2009 earthquake that destroyed much of L'Aquila, the regional capital, left scars that are still visible in the city's slow and contested reconstruction, and the Guardian's account of Amatrice's struggles resonates across the mountain communities that share the same seismic fault lines.

The Guardian's reporting notes that the slow pace of reconstruction in Amatrice is not an isolated case. Across the crater of the 2016 earthquake, which stretched across the regions of Lazio, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzo, public projects have lagged, with bureaucratic delays and funding disputes blamed for the stagnation. The paper quotes no Italian officials directly but frames the delays as a failure of coordination between national and local authorities.

The anniversary mass, celebrated in the town's church, is a moment of collective mourning but also of anger. The Guardian describes the mood among residents as one of frustration, with many still living in temporary housing a decade after the disaster. The paper notes that the town's population, already depleted by the quake, has continued to fall as young people leave in search of work and stability elsewhere.

For Abruzzo, the lesson is a familiar one. The 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, which killed 309 people, saw a reconstruction process that dragged on for years, with the historic centre of the city still partly in scaffolding. International coverage of Amatrice's plight, the Guardian notes, has drawn comparisons to L'Aquila, where the slow recovery became a symbol of the state's difficulty in responding to disasters in Italy's mountain interior.

The Guardian's report also highlights the broader context of depopulation in the Apennines. The villages that dot the ridges between Abruzzo and Lazio have been emptying for decades, and the earthquake accelerated the exodus. As the paper notes, the reconstruction is not just about rebuilding buildings but about keeping communities alive, a challenge that the region's national parks and conservation efforts cannot fully meet.

As the anniversary passes, the question for Amatrice and for Abruzzo is whether the next decade will bring the completion of the projects that remain unfinished. The Guardian's reporting offers little comfort, noting that the pace of work has slowed in recent years as attention has shifted to other emergencies. For the mountain towns that look to the state for protection, the message is clear: the memory of the quake endures, but so does the wait.