In L’Aquila

A view of the damaged Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio in the Piazza del Duomo in L’Aquila, Italy.

An aftershock destroyed what remained of the dome of the 18th-century Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio.


The prefecture of L’ Aquila also sustained heavy damage.

A plaque carved with the names of benefactors of a local orphanage, the first dating back to 1542, lay shattered.

The Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio was destroyed.

The bell tower of the San Bernardino church collapsed.

In nearby Paganica, the Conception Church “now has cannonball-sized holes”!

Debris still completely blocks many streets in Paganica and L'Aquila.

In L’Aquila, a man stood in the eerie silence photographing a mountain of debris... “It’s upsetting that people understand how beautiful L’Aquila is only when it’s destroyed”!

The clock on Sant'Eusanio Martire church is stopped at the time of the deadly earthquake, 3:32 AM, in the village of Sant'Eusanio Forconese, near L'Aquila.

A painting of the Virgin Mary and a crucifix are seen in the rubble of collapsed church building, in the village of Castelnuovo, near L'Aquila central Italy.

Workers from the Department of art preservation recover art pieces on April 10 in Onna, a village near L'Aquila, Italy.

Firefighter Roberto Contu of the SAF (Speleologic Alpine Fluvial group), seen hanging, looks at the damage inside the damaged dome of the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio, in L'Aquila.

Workers from the Department of art preservation recover art pieces from the Collemaggio Cathedral on April 11 in L'Aquila, Italy.

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Wedding Shoot - A Day To Remember (Part 2)

It was a day to remember... Their Wedding shoot.

At the famous 100-year-old Church of the Annunciation in Pengzhou, China.

Very early morning May 12, photographer Wang went about preparing to shoot wedding pictures for a young couple, this was the test shot before the shoot...

Pengzhou is located in the Sichuan province. It was morning May 12, 2008.

And then it happened.... the earth quake! 7.8 on the Richter scale.

Bricks fall from the building during the earthquake, which turned Wang from a wedding photographer into a journalist.

'Thank God we were only shooting from outside the church!' remarked a helper.

The stunned couple huddles together at the church ground during initial tremors.

'I shouted to people, 'Run! Run!'' said photographer Wang Qiang. 'The ground shook and we couldn't see anything in the dust.'

As the dust began to clear, the true extent of damage was only beginning to appear...

A cracked facade was all that remained of the 100-year-old Church of the Annunciation after the quake. Most of the church 'collapsed in 10 seconds,' said Wang, who lives in Chengdu, capital of hard-hit Sichuan province.

Soon after the quake, the people at the seminary set out for a nearby village, but residents warned them the route was blocked. 'We could still hear landslides,' Wang wrote in an online account of the disaster. So they stayed overnight in a tent and made it to the village the next day, thanks to help from a truck driver.

A scarf from a wedding dress lies forgotten in front of the seminary.

Wang said he thought the catastrophe would strengthen the bonds of the couples who were there that day: 'Having gone through a life-and-death test, they surely will clasp hands and grow old together.'

No one was harmed at the above location.

They'll sure have a Wild story to tell there Children!

Wedding Shoot - A Day To Remember (Part 1)

http://pictzz.blogspot.com/2008/06/earth-quake-wedding-photo.html

Over 100 ''Quake Dogs'' Get Medical Aid in China

An injured dog scoots around an animal shelter outside the city of Chengdu in China's Sichuan Province on June 26 2008, with the aid of a walker cobbled together with PVC pipes.

The dog is one of about a hundred rescued and rehabilitated in the wake of the May 12 earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people. Thousands of other dogs weren't so lucky. They were culled in a government program meant to prevent disease from spreading in the quake's aftermath.

A worker at an animal shelter near Chengdu, China, assembles a wheelchair on July 12, 2008 for a dog injured in the May 12 earthquake.

The shelter is run by Chen Yunlian, a 60-year-old retired cosmetics distributor. She cares for more than 900 dogs and 100 cats, including about 100 dogs she adopted following the devastating quake.

"I started down a road," she told the Associated Press, "and I couldn't turn around."

Iditarod training? Not quite. The man in the June 29 photo above works with five "quake dogs" outfitted with makeshift wheelchairs at an animal shelter near Chengdu, China. While pet ownership has risen in China, dog meat is still eaten in some regions.

"Olympics approved" restaurants, however, won't serve dog. "Dog meat sales are being suspended as a mark of respect for foreigners and people from ethnic groups," an official told the Beijing Daily newspaper on July 11.

A dog sits among the rubble in Shifang in Sichuan Province on May 16, four days after a devastating earthquake struck China.

Pets are banned from many of the tent camps where millions of refugees have taken temporary shelter.

"As a result, some displaced people have been keeping the pets in their damaged homes, which is a safety risk to both the owner and pet," Jill Robinson, founder of the animal-welfare group Animals Asia, told the China Post on June 9.

Yelp! A stray dog receives medical treatment at an animal shelter outside Chengdu, China, on June 28.

More than a hundred dogs were rescued following the May 12 earthquake. Most are mutts: terrier-Pekingese-pug-poodle mixes with squat bodies, short legs, curly tails, and pointy ears.

"Chinese people prefer purebred dogs, and the mixes probably won't be adopted," Chen Yunlian, who runs the shelter, told the Associated Press on June 27. "But mutts are the most intelligent and affectionate."

Paramilitary officers remove the bodies of dead dogs from the devastated town of Yingxiu, China, on May 22.

Thousands of dogs were killed in the aftermath of the May 12 earthquake out of fears they would fight with humans for food and spread disease.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare entered an agreement with officials in nearby Zun Dao township to prevent a similar slaughter. Instead of culls, dogs there were given rabies vaccinations and given veterinary aid.

Credit: Associated Press

Earth quake wedding photo

12 May 2008 - Wenchuan, China