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"They've told us for years we should make our houses anti-seismic," said Gloria Nardo, 69, of Amatrice. "But how do you retrofit a brick house built in 1750? It's almost all gone now."
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Rescuers scramble as death toll rises to 250 in Italy quake
Over 250 dead ...
That's actually rubble stone masonry construction. In time ( a few 100 years), the lime they used to to make the portland cement and sand mix toolable (lay up with a trowel) in the mortar weakens -- the mortar bond to the stone core softens -- there is some shock to the walls and this is what happens.