ro barbie nadeau joins us from rome. the video is gut wrenching to see. a number of buildings collapsed, a number of residents are missing. what have you learned? reporter: it is a devastating event. they ve got at least seven people still missing. this is a small town, a close-knit community on the island of sicily, not far from the seaside. people were ready for the holidays there. everybody s gathering, everybody s happy. and this devastating explosion kind of late in the evening, it has really shocked the community. we ve left hand learning there are about 50 people left homeless. they can t go back to their homes because of damage. we ve seen some incredible footage of the damage to the homes near where this explosion took place. and they re blaming a gas leak, but they don t know yet what set it off. it could have been some sort of movement of the soil. it s a highly seismic area. but the mayor had called out for