Elon women's basketball team touring Italy safe after earthquake

Elon University Women’s basketball team members were in Rome Wednesday wrapping up their 10-day tour of Italy, when a severe earthquake leveled several Italian towns.

No one on the trip was injured in the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that rocked towns 100 miles northeast of Rome, although team members said they could feel aftershocks.

Faith Shearer, associate athletics director at Elon, described the aftershocks.

“When I woke up, I thought I heard a noise, but then I realized my bed felt like it was rolling back and forth,” Shearer said. “We felt an aftershock 20-30 minutes later that was substantial.”

The team competed in several games while they toured Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, the Republic of San Marino and other towns.

“I felt the whole entire hotel shaking,” head coach Charlotte Smith said. “The room was moving it was of course a very, very scary time.”

That was Smith’s first earthquake.

She rushed to the hotel front desk asking if the team should evacuate as they continued to feel aftershocks.

The hotel was not damaged.

But the towns like Amariche were devastated and more than 150 people were killed.

The team is thinking of the lives and homes lost in the quake.

“Our thoughts and prayers and hearts go out to all those in Italy,” Smith said.

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