FARINDOLA -- Amongst the latest survivors and those currently tragically trapped Friday underneath the layers of snow and rubble of the avalanche-stricken Rigopiano hotel in the Gran Sasso ski resort, emerge heartwarming stories of families reunited.

  One survivor, Giampaolo Parete, 38, in a Pescara hospital, who managed to escape being trapped under the ruins of the hotel only because he had gone to get something from his car but was suffering from hypothermia, was reunited with his wife and son who were plucked to safety in the latest extraction operation. Their daughter is still under the snow and rubble but rescuers are working to save her.

 His friend and employer Quintino Marcella -- a restaurant owner who had employed Parete as a cook for many years -- received a call from his friend staying at the Rigopiano hotel at around 5:40 p.m. desperately asking for help.

 “I was in contact with him more than once via messages and phone calls up until 11 p.m. Then nothing. He then called me from Rigopiano to tell me that they had taken him to hospital in Pescara by helicopter. He is fine, but confused and is crying desperately because he is worried about his two children aged 6 and 8 and for his wife Adriana. They are a beautiful family. Fantastic people,” said Marcella.

 Another family from the town of Osimo in Ancona have been plucked to safety from under the snow and rubble of the hotel. They are Domenico Di Michelangelo aged 41, his wife Marina Serraiocco aged 37, and their seven-year-old son.

 Marina, owner of a popular shop in the town called “Maria’s bonbonniere,” posted on her Facebook timeline Tuesday a picture of the snowy hotel saying “we will relax, recover and return, at least we hope so seeing the amount of snow we have…”

 Alessandro Riccetti aged 32 from Terni is still thought to be stuck under the ruins. He was the night guard of the hotel. The last telephone contact he had was with his mother Thursday before the avalanche. “We want to live these moments privately,” said his aunt who is following the situation from Terni, along with other family members, friends and officials of the town.

 Riccetti graduated in foreign languages for international communication, and it is his birthday on Monday, La Repubblica writes.

 nkd