At the moment their homes shook from the Richter scale readings of continuous earthquakes that disturbed Northern Evia, residents of Dafnoussa describe their experience to Orange Press Agency. As they report, they were very frightened as they estimate they haven’t experienced such a strong earthquake in decades. “I ran outside barefoot, I didn’t even have time to put on shoes,” an elderly woman characteristically noted. It should be noted that the successive tremors forced residents to run terrified into the streets, while also causing serious damage to houses and shops.
Earthquake swarm in Evia: Residents’ testimonies are shocking
“I was here at home, sitting in the little kitchen watching TV, the news. I don’t remember exactly, it was ten minutes past one and at the time of the earthquake my mother was sleeping next door, in the other room. She was trying to get up because she’s elderly and I grabbed her by the hands and got her out of the house. Terrible earthquake, terror, everything was shaking, the ground was moving, everything. Fortunately it came in intervals and wasn’t continuous, it was in three phases if I remember correctly,” says Kostas. His mother, as she mentions, “ran outside barefoot, I didn’t even have time to put on shoes.”
Mr. Tasos was in Mantoudi at the time of the earthquake, while his mother lives in Dafnoussa. “I was at home and realized there was a very strong earthquake, I’m 65 years old and I’ve never felt such a strong earthquake. I went upstairs, you saw what happened here too. Seven children grew up in this house. My mother is currently being hosted because she gave the house to two brothers. There have been earthquakes before, in simple terms they had given compensation, it wasn’t even enough for paint for this house. It had suffered damage before and now all the walls fell, as you saw. More than anything we want to fix the house for my mother, so she doesn’t see it like this because she’s an old woman,” emphasizes Mr. Tasos.
What Papazachos and Karastathis say
Speaking to parapolitika.gr, the director of the Geodynamics Institute, Dr. Vasilis Karastathis, stated: “This area has produced similar earthquakes in the past, but we need to see how the phenomenon will develop, at least in the first hours. We need to wait a bit. Under no circumstances can we say whether what happened was the main earthquake.”
“Two major earthquakes of magnitude 4.8 and 5.2 on the Richter scale were recorded and we have a large aftershock sequence of smaller earthquakes that is ongoing. The area doesn’t have a history of very large earthquakes, but a larger seismic tremor cannot be ruled out,” Kostas Papazachos, Professor of Seismology at AUTH, told parapolitika.gr.
And he continued: “In any case, we must be cautious for the next period of time. Residents should be prepared for aftershock activity, which will likely be intense next week. Analyses are ongoing.”
