On Monday April 6th, at 3:32am local time (01:32 GMT), L'Aquila, capital city of the central Abruzzo region, 60 miles northeast of Rome, was stricken by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake [en]. Even if the country is not new to such tragedies, this is Italy's worst earthquake in three decades. The latest figures include more than 250 people dead, 1,000 people injured (100 of them seriously), and over 25,000 people left without homes. Overall 26 towns and villages have been hit [it], and some virtually destroyed. The trembling was felt all over central Italy, including Rome, where it was even captured on film by the TV show “Big Brother” 24/7 cameras [it]. Rude awakening The first pictures appeared immediately on Flickr and many more were uploaded during the day. Similarly, the first news was transmitted by local Twitter users (particularly with hashtags #italy and #terremoto) and quickly spread throughout the world, thanks to services such as Breaking Tweets [en] – even before the satellite news channels broadcasts. [Awaken by the earthquake, look up immediately info on twitter (and I find them)] And in the early morning hours more news and comments began to pour in on Facebook. On the group “Terremoto in Abruzzo” [it] (Earthquake in Abruzzo) Chiara urges people “not not leave them alone” and writes: l'Aquila distrutta… speravo fosse un sogno ed invece è tutta realtà… non ci posso ancora credere… mi si stringe il cuore… ma l'Aquila ritornerà ad essere bella come prima ed a emozionarci ancora.. Sono vicina a tutti… Many ready to help right away On the same “Terremoto in Abruzzo” group, someone from Messina, a city in Sicily, says he's ready to hit the road to go there and help, just like many others: vorrei partire come volontario x dare un aiuto anche io.. qualcuno che è della provincia di messina sa dirmi come fare?? chi contattare? fatemi sapere… grazie On the first day alone, on Facebook there were about 500 different groups, with appeals for solidarity and action – like this one from Daniela in Reggio Emilia: in questo drammatico momento di immenso dolore, mi rendo disponibile ad ospitare una famiglia presso la mia casa, offrendo loro un alloggio confortevole, e tutto il mio sostegno morale. Also Alessandra has in her heart the many homeless people and writes: Facciamo un gruppo in cui le persone che hanno più di una casa si offrono di mettere a disposizione un'abitazione per gli sfollati del terremoto. Io sono disponibile. COME CI POSSIAMO MUOVERE? Citizen media help to cope with tragedy Daylight brings into sharp focus the magnitude of the tragedy and the web is the preferred place to disseminate information worldwide in a split second. On YouTube, Mastrostyle uploads a slideshow with several moving photos. Also Lukalove creates another poignant slideshow using the online software slide.com. Several people ready with video- or cell-cameras descend into the wreckage to talk with the victims and people involved in the rescue efforts. Here is a video showing a girl just extracted from the rubble being taken in an ambulance. While the following video includes some interviews [it] with people displaced in a park in L'Aquila: Criticism of mainstream media coverage The event seems to make everybody very tense and sensitive. Many cannot even tolerate small mistakes from major news outlets online. The pensierispettinati blog [it] noticed that the photo gallery from L'Aquila published by the daily Corriere della Sera website includes one photo that doesn't belong to this tragedy: it's a picture of the May 2008 earthquake in Sechuan, China. They removed the offending picture, only to inadvertently post, a short time later, another picture related to rescue efforts in an earthquake in Turkey. Several bloggers criticized [It] another major newspaper website, Repubblica.it for somehow exploiting the tragic event, boosting their advertisements and banners among its reports. An avoidable tragedy? Many netizens are also claiming that the earthquake was somehow expected: being an area at risk, the Abruzzo region was monitored closely. In fact, only a week earlier, using his own invention of gas radon measurements, Giampaolo Giuliani, a scientist related to the National Nuclear Physics Institute, had even predicted a very strong earthquake in a nearby city and alerted local officials about his findings. But the Head of the Civil Protection Agency, Bertolaso, immediately accused him of alarmism, threatening to sue him if he kept talking about it – so Giuliani kept his mouth shut. The story is still very much alive in the blogosphere.