Prosecutors are investigating why so many modern buildings were flattened by the quake and whether flawed construction materials were to blame.

VOA: standard.2009.04.12

Dozens of houses on the outskirts of the Sicilian city were swept away or flattened by heavy rain and mud.

VOA: standard.2009.10.10

"It was completely flattened. I just had this huge sense of, 'oh,thank goodness we can now start to move forward'."

VOA: standard.2009.03.21

Hundreds of houses were flattened and flooded by the two million cubic meters of water that ripped through the Dutch-colonial era dam.

VOA: standard.2009.03.28

Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah says the quake flattened an estimated including about 5,000 homes.

VOA: standard.2009.09.03