U.S. organization starts relief fund for Italian quake victims

The death toll in the powerful earthquake that rocked central Italy early today is listed right now at 150 but that figure is expected to rise as officials continue to check flattened buildings for about 1,500 missing people. (Click here for photos.)

The affected area sits in a hilly region of the Apennine Mountains about 75 miles northeast of Rome. The earthquake may have had a magnitude as high as 6.3 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The nonprofit National Italian American Foundation based in Washington, D.C., today announced a special Abruzzo/NIAF Relief Fund “to help victims and their families who perished from the recent earthquake in the town of L’Aquila and other small towns in central Italy in the region of Abruzzo.”

Anyone who wants to donate to the special relief fund can make online tax-deductible donations at www.niaf.org/relief.

– Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo: Amedeo Troiani / Getty Images]

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 12:05 pm by Mary Forgione and is filed under Europe, Italy, News, Tips & Advice, earthquake. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.