NORCIA, Italy — Over centuries, residents of this Umbrian city and its environs have grown accustomed to the ragged tempo of earthquakes in the mountainous region. Resilience is a point of local pride. But the quake that struck on Oct. 30, the strongest to hit Italy in 36 years, was drastically different. As Mayor Nicola Alemanno of Norcia put it, some quakes are “cataclysms that generate catastrophes.”

Ancient buildings collapsed. Families who had lived in stone houses for generations were left homeless. In Norcia, the quake forced a mass evacuation and destroyed the basilica of St. Benedict, pictured above, as well as towns in the Marche region, like Visso, below.