This is an ongoing argument about quake prediction, alas.

Until we have a reliable way to predict quakes within a few days...OR until we have a totally educated populace with quake-proof buildings, this is going to be difficult.

Some folks have predicted that MORE people would die from evacuations, looting, etc. if a quake were predicted too far in advance. Or worse--who is going to be liable if the quake doesn't happen. We hve pretty good tornado prediction in the US, and yet still a lot of people don't heed them.

I wonder if the people of L'Aquila and surroundings would have handled this prediction in a reasonable manner? A month of fear and evacuations?

I have no answers for this. The Chinese prediction in the 70s, and subsequent evacuations saving lives, was useful only because it was a very regulated society at the time.