Performance of Lifelines during the 2002 Molise, Italy, Earthquake

Abstract

The Molise earthquake affected a wide rural area with sparse houses, villages and towns. The paper investigates the response of water, electric power, telecommunications, natural gas, rail and motorway systems. Despite the amount of damage to buildings, lifeline systems reported only minor damage. The damage was light not only because the event caused relatively moderate ground motion in the affected area but also because the main lifelines do not cross the epicentral region and were in a fair state of maintenance.