'Saved!' Survivors found in hotel buried by avalanche in Italy

ROME – Italy rejoiced Friday after the unexpected rescue of several people presumed dead a day after an avalanche decimated a mountain ski resort.

But the good news was tempered by widespread reports that the four-star Rigopiano on the slopes of the Gran Sasso was built without permits and that if rules had been followed the structure would have never been built in such a high-risk location.

The hotel, outside the town of Farindola, about 100 miles east of Rome, was destroyed late Wednesday when a 35-foot wall of snow, ice, and mud — presumably triggered by a series of earthquakes earlier in the day — crashed down the mountainside, tearing the hotel from its foundation and burying as many as 30 hotel guests and staff. Two survivors were recovered quickly, but as nightfall came Thursday, workers said hopes of finding more in the bitter cold were slim.

But on Friday, at least six more survivors were found in a part of the structure that remained intact but was completely buried by snow. As of late Friday local time, Italian television reports and the ANSA news agency said rescue workers were in contact with additional survivors, possibly as many as five, trapped under the snow.

Avalanche buries Italian hotel; 'Many dead' with at least 30 missing

Rescue efforts have been slowed by the difficulty in getting heavy machinery into the area because of its remote location and the heavy snow that closed roads in the area. The first rescue workers took more than two hours to arrive, traversing the four miles from the closest road on cross-country skis.

Italian media celebrated the unexpected rescues. The Rome daily newspaper Il Messaggero ran a large headline reading “More Rigopiano victims saved!” La Repubblica, another major newspaper from the capital, paid homage to what it called “heroic rescue workers.” Television networks even broke into live coverage of the inauguration of President Trump to report updates from the rescue.

Meanwhile, reports surfaced questioning the safety of the hotel's location.

According to Sergio Rizzo, a veteran journalist with the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, the building was illegally constructed on the site of an old farmhouse, sparking an investigation from local magistrates that was ultimately settled under unclear circumstances. The site, which did not have a permit, was eventually given amnesty after heavy lobbying from local politicians, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano, another newspaper.

“The hotel shouldn’t have been there,” Rizzo said on the television program Piazza Pulita on Friday. “It’s in a ravine. It’s far too vulnerable. It’s enough to look at it to understand the risks. It’s scandalous.”

Some cautioned not to jump to conclusions.

“It’s too early to determine whether there’s a link between the past investigations and the tragedy,” said Alessandro Biancardi, director of an online news site who has followed the case closely.

Wednesday’s quakes — at least a dozen that measured magnitude 5.1 to 5.7 — were the third round of temblors in Abruzzo in five months. The region is still recovering from a series of earthquakes in August that killed more than 200 people.

The latest quakes left several hundred people homeless and cut electricity to more than 100,000 homes in the region.

Italy has seen above-average snowfall coverage this winter, Aon Benfield meteorologist Steve Bowen said. "Combine that with continued earthquakes in the central mountains; major avalanche risk," Bowen tweeted Thursday.

Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara, Doyle Rice, USA TODAY