Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has delivered the first new houses to people made homeless by the devastating earthquake that hit the central Abruzzo region at the beginning of April.

Amid great media fanfare, Prime Minister Berlusconi handed over the keys to 94 new houses in Onno, a village that was reduced to rubble by the quake. The prime minister had promised that everybody would be housed before winter sets in.

Almost 300 people died in the earthquake and more than 30,000 people were made homeless, most of them in the capital L'Aquila.
 

It is doubtful that everyone will be rehoused before winter hits. There are still some 11,000 people living in tents and about 25,000 living in hotels on the Adriatic coast. According to the authorities in L'Aquilla, it is not enough to provide new houses, people need work as well. The earthquake made at the 16,000 people unemployed.