Greece island Kefalonia struck by 6.1-magnitude earthquake
The Associated Press
Last Updated:Feb 03, two thousand fourteen 12:50 PM ET
Western Greece was rocked by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake Monday morning. Google
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A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude inbetween Five.7 and 6.1 hit the western Greek island of Kefalonia before dawn Monday, sending frightened residents into the streets just over a week after a similar quake bruised hundreds of buildings, reviving memories of a disaster in the 1950s.
Authorities said about sixteen people had been slightly hurt, mainly by falling objects, while roads, homes and shops were bruised and some areas suffered power and water supply cuts. Islanders also had to contend with intense bad weather, with strong rain and low temperatures.
Kefalonia Mayor Alexandros Parisis said the port at the island’s 2nd largest town of Lixouri, the closest to the epicenter, had been bruised. Pics from the area demonstrated part of the pier cracking off and boats that had been on land for repair toppling over.
Earthquakes have been rattling Kefalonia permanently for the past week, after a Five.9-magnitude temblor struck the area on Jan. 26, bruising homes and slightly injuring seven people. Since then, thousands of residents have been spending nights with relatives or in ships sent to accommodate them.
Schools on the island have been shut for the past week, and had not been scheduled to reopen until Wednesday, said Deputy Mayor Evangelos Kekatos.
Sailboats stored ashore on the western Greek island of Kefalonia were knocked off their jack stands by a strong earthquake early Monday. (Associated Press)
Authorities urged the islanders to remain peaceful and not treatment any bruised buildings.
An eight-member rescue team with a sniffer dog was heading to the island as a precaution, the fire department said, while Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias and his ministry’s secretary general were also heading to Kefalonia to co-ordinate the response.
Aircraft dispatched
The armed coerces was sending two military transport aircraft carrying thirty personnel and three doctors as well as tents and emergency supplies, while a military ship was sailing to the island with digging vehicles, a mobile kitchen and a water tanker among other equipment, the Defence Ministry said.
The Athens Geodynamic Institute registered the pre-dawn quake, which struck just after five a.m. local time, with a magnitude of Five.7 and an epicenter twelve kilometres northwest of the island’s capital of Argostoli. The U.S. Geological Survey registered a 6.1-magnitude. It is common for institutes to register different figures.
The intense seismic activity reawakened memories of the devastating one thousand nine hundred fifty three quakes on Kefalonia and neighbouring Zakinthos, when a 7.2-magnitude temblor struck three days after a 6.Four quake, killing hundreds, injuring thousands and demolishing almost all the buildings on the islands.
Seismologists said more aftershocks were to be expected on the island, which lies in a very seismically active region. Several registered in the initial hours after Monday’s quake.
More aftershocks
“The entire area has been activated … we are all on alert,” said Maria Sahpazi, head of the Geodynamic Institute, adding that Monday morning’s quake appeared to be a strong aftershock of the Jan. Twenty six temblor.
“We expect more aftershocks, which will be of this size or smaller,” she said.
Seismologist Vassilis Papazachos urged caution and said islanders must make plans for shelter over the coming weeks or months if their homes are bruised as the region has produced powerful earthquakes in the past.
“Measures must be mid-term,” Papazachos said on Greek television. “We can’t know whether there will be a thicker (earthquake).”
Monday’s quake was felt across parts of the western Greek mainland and as far away as the Greek capital, Athens, almost three hundred kilometres to the east.