Thousands leave Spanish city a ghost town after earthquake
Source: Agencies |
May 13, 2011, Friday
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THOUSANDS of Spaniards stunned by the country's deadliest earthquakes in 55 years fled the small agricultural city of Lorca yesterday, fearing aftershocks might level it after a pair of moderate temblors killed nine people and caused extensive damage.
Lorca has a population of about 90,000 but was transformed into a ghost town, with a steady stream of cars carrying residents to nearby cities and towns to stay with relatives. Stores, restaurants and schools were closed as the sirens of police vehicles and ambulances filled the air and helicopters hovered overhead.
Only a few people walked streets yesterday afternoon after tens of thousands slept outside in makeshift camps and many of those who remained were poor Latin American immigrants who work the fields and had nowhere else to go.
Though Spain's government promised to set up a shelter to house 3,500 people, Luis Vazquez was camping in a supermarket parking lot with his wife, 12-year-old daughter and four other families.
The unemployed farm worker said his apartment was badly damaged, and that he would soon "have to ask for help if it continues like this. I can't care for my family without money, and now without a house."
Thirty people remained hospitalized yesterday a day after the quakes, which prompted an estimated 30,000 residents to sleep in cars, shelters fashioned from cardboard boxes and lawn chairs at makeshift camps in parks in the city about 30 kilometers inland from Mediterranean Sea beach destinations where little to no damage was reported.
Only a few buildings were destroyed, but the quakes with magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2 reported by Spain's geological institute sent brick building facades and parts of terraces plunging into the streets and caused damage to hundreds of apartment buildings. While some people couldn't stay home, many others didn't want to stay inside for fear of aftershocks.
"The whole facade and the stairs of the apartment where I live are totally broken," said resident Tomas Hinojo. "The hardest things happened right where I live. Three of the victims killed are my neighbors."
Spanish experts said the second quake caused the most damage and its power was more destructive than many quakes of similar magnitude because its epicenter was on the outskirts of Lorca and because it happened at the very shallow depth of about 1 kilometer below ground.
"That is very, very close to the surface," said Maria Jose Jurado Rodriguez, a geologist with the Spanish National Research Council, the government's top scientific research group. "That energy goes very directly to the inhabited area."
Also, the soil in the Murcia region where Lorca lies is loose and sandy, meaning it could not absorb earthquake energy as well as places that have more compact soil, said Ramon Aragon Rueda, head of the Murcia branch of the government's Geological and Mining Institute.
Antother Ecuadorean resident of Lorca, Edison Tixd, said he thought terrorists had hit the city when the quakes hit. "I thought it was a bomb by al-Qaida after what happened to (Osama) bin Laden," said Tixd, 26. "The sound was spine-chilling."
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero halted campaigning for upcoming regional and municipal elections to oversee an emergency committee to coordinate rescue and aid operations, and made a special appearance in congress yesterday to express condolences.
Eight hundred police and soldiers were deployed to the city to assist with the cleanup, but Zapatero warned that the process won't be quick.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us," he said.
Lorca has a population of about 90,000 but was transformed into a ghost town, with a steady stream of cars carrying residents to nearby cities and towns to stay with relatives. Stores, restaurants and schools were closed as the sirens of police vehicles and ambulances filled the air and helicopters hovered overhead.
Only a few people walked streets yesterday afternoon after tens of thousands slept outside in makeshift camps and many of those who remained were poor Latin American immigrants who work the fields and had nowhere else to go.
Though Spain's government promised to set up a shelter to house 3,500 people, Luis Vazquez was camping in a supermarket parking lot with his wife, 12-year-old daughter and four other families.
The unemployed farm worker said his apartment was badly damaged, and that he would soon "have to ask for help if it continues like this. I can't care for my family without money, and now without a house."
Thirty people remained hospitalized yesterday a day after the quakes, which prompted an estimated 30,000 residents to sleep in cars, shelters fashioned from cardboard boxes and lawn chairs at makeshift camps in parks in the city about 30 kilometers inland from Mediterranean Sea beach destinations where little to no damage was reported.
Only a few buildings were destroyed, but the quakes with magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2 reported by Spain's geological institute sent brick building facades and parts of terraces plunging into the streets and caused damage to hundreds of apartment buildings. While some people couldn't stay home, many others didn't want to stay inside for fear of aftershocks.
"The whole facade and the stairs of the apartment where I live are totally broken," said resident Tomas Hinojo. "The hardest things happened right where I live. Three of the victims killed are my neighbors."
Spanish experts said the second quake caused the most damage and its power was more destructive than many quakes of similar magnitude because its epicenter was on the outskirts of Lorca and because it happened at the very shallow depth of about 1 kilometer below ground.
"That is very, very close to the surface," said Maria Jose Jurado Rodriguez, a geologist with the Spanish National Research Council, the government's top scientific research group. "That energy goes very directly to the inhabited area."
Also, the soil in the Murcia region where Lorca lies is loose and sandy, meaning it could not absorb earthquake energy as well as places that have more compact soil, said Ramon Aragon Rueda, head of the Murcia branch of the government's Geological and Mining Institute.
Antother Ecuadorean resident of Lorca, Edison Tixd, said he thought terrorists had hit the city when the quakes hit. "I thought it was a bomb by al-Qaida after what happened to (Osama) bin Laden," said Tixd, 26. "The sound was spine-chilling."
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero halted campaigning for upcoming regional and municipal elections to oversee an emergency committee to coordinate rescue and aid operations, and made a special appearance in congress yesterday to express condolences.
Eight hundred police and soldiers were deployed to the city to assist with the cleanup, but Zapatero warned that the process won't be quick.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us," he said.
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