Like today, September 7, a strong earthquake of 5.9 Richter hits Athens – Report: 143 dead
September 7, 1999. A strong earthquake of 5.9 Richter shook Athens, leaving behind 143 dead and thousands of homeless!
It was September 7, 1999The holidays were over, summer was over and its inhabitants Athens they were trying to adapt in case of autumn and a school. And suddenly there struck one of the bowels of the earth powerful earthquake which upset the capital.
Read also: What the 1999 earthquake left behind – Economic damage at 3% of GDP
The 15 seconds that shook the endurance of Athens, awakening to the older memories of 1981, were marking the second deadliest earthquake in Greece after that of 1953 in the Ionian Islands. Account; 143 people lost their lives in the collapse of 11 buildingsThe
The earthquake struck at 3 instead of four minutes at noon on Tuesday, September 7, and focused on a point at its feet Parnithas, near Menidi and the Ano LiosiaIts strength was 5.9 on the Richter scale, and its focal depth was less than 10 kilometers, which made the blow to the city so deadly.
Until September 7, 1999, the site of the earthquake was considered dangerous. It was located near a seismic zone – that of the Gulf of Corinth which had given the previous great earthquake of Athens in 1981, with 20 victims – but within the Attica basin, where the seismologists considered it seismicThe
The severe wounds left by the earthquake in the city can be summarized in the following key points:
• 80,000 families were temporarily homeless, 6,000 families were living in buildings that collapsed or had to be demolished.
• The section of the population most affected lived in the area where the greatest intensity was observed and amounts to 150,000 inhabitants.
• In the four municipalities (Ano Liosia, Fili, Acharnes and Thrakomakedones), which were most affected in 10% and 40% of the houses that were characterized as red and yellow buildings respectively.
• In other municipalities of the Basin, the percentages of red and yellow respectively were significantly lower, 0.3% and 5.2% respectively.
• The buildings of Attica at the time of the earthquake they amounted to 650,000 and 35% of the population of Greece lived in Athens. The earthquake hit 7% of these buildings.
• The buildings that were damaged during the 1999 earthquake it was four times that of 1981.
Earthquake in the economy as well
Heavily taken was also the sector of the economy as the 1999 earthquake caused the largest losses observed in the insurance sector in Greece (130 million euros). However, even today only 10% of homes in Greece are insured against earthquakes. Overall, the economic losses caused are estimated to correspond to 3% of GDP.
Its cost amounted to 10 million euros, while 10 also included the cost of technical inspections in the 28 buildings that suffered serious damage, in which there were human losses.