Giovanni Randazzo's Earthquake

Giovanni Randazzo was born in Carini Italy on September 16th, 1941. Giovanni was born on the steps in his house, which back in this time period wasn’t always a very big deal. During this time people would be born in houses, not in hospitals. A doctor would usually come to the house to deliver the baby. Giovanni lived a very different child hood then the children of today. He went to school for 5 years, from the ages of 6-11, then he dropped out to work. This was also something seen often in time period. As a kid, Giovanni and his friends would leave to walk to school and end up just hanging out around the neighborhood. He says a lot of kids used to do this, and that education was different then it was today. Teachers wouldn’t take attendance,

It tore down towns, left people injured and homeless, and even killed many. The after shock was just as great as the actual earth quake itself. It was a very sad time in Sicily.

The earthquake was known in Italy as the “Terremoto del Belice” which translates to The earthquake of Belice. The earthquake occurred on January 14th, 1968 in Sicily, the southern most region of Italy, also known as the tip of the boot. The earthquake recorded the largest shock at 5.5 on the moment magnitude scale (which measures the power of an earthquake) and had an intensity of X on the Mercalli intensity scale (which measures the intensity of earthquakes). Even the after shocks recorded at high levels of VII. That’s a very powerful earthquake.

The Belice earthquake took the lives of many people, and injured and took the homes of even more. This earthquake took the lives of about 400 people, which is a lot for an earthquake. Even worse, the earthquake injured up to 1000 people. The worst that this earthquake did was leave around 100,000 people homeless. These facts show how ruthless the earthquake

The first reason I enjoyed writing this essay was because I got to learn a lot about my grandfather and his history. Another reason writing this paper was enjoyable was because I was able to study the history of Italy. The final reason I liked writing this paper was because I got to hear a pretty cool story and share it with someone else interested so maybe it will continue to be passed on. These three motives were why I enjoyed writing this paper.

I learned so much about my grandfather while writing this paper. I was really glad I got to sit down with my grandpa and listen to his history and the history of our family. It was really cool to hear about how he met my grandma and how they came over to America and started a new life here. It was also very beneficial because now I understand a lot more when my family talks about some of the things our family members do in Italy. It was great that I got to learn so much about my family’s and more importantly my grandfather’s history and what his life was like many years