An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale rocked Albania Sunday night, causing damage but no casualties, local media reported. The quake struck around midnight. The epicenter was located in the Dibra area, close to the Macedonian border, the Albanian Institute of Seismology said.
Posts Tagged ‘earthquake’
Strong Indonesian earthquake kills 46
September 3rd, 2009 |
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Villagers and soldiers are digging through rock and debris in search of women and children buried in a landslide triggered by a strong Indonesian earthquake that killed at least 46 people and damaged thousands of buildings. Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono says at least
Strong quake rattles Tokyo, disrupts transport
August 11th, 2009 |
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A strong earthquake jolted Tokyo and surrounding areas early Tuesday morning, throwing food and bottles from store shelves, disrupting transport and closing a nuclear power plant for safety checks. The magnitude 6.5 quake centred around 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Tokyo damaged the main
Sicilian hospital ‘a quake risk’
July 28th, 2009 |
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By David Willey
BBC News, Rome
Italian officials have ordered the evacuation of a newly built hospital on the island of Sicily after tests showed it risked collapse in an earthquake.
The 400-bed complex is in the town of Agrigento, in western Sicily.
More than 20 local officials and managers of the construction company are under investigation for fraud.
The justice authorities allege that they supplied sub-standard building materials – including concrete made with more sand than cement.
It is an emblematic story of Mafia crime – the endangering of the lives of hundreds of patients because the Sicilian hospital structure is unsafe in a known earthquake zone.
Rats
The public hospital in Agrigento took 20 years to build at a cost to the Italian taxpayer of more than $50m (35.3m euros).
When it finally opened, five years ago, rats had eaten through electric cables and there was a black-out including in operating theatres, involving costly repairs.
The stability of the structure is suspect because concrete supplied by local contractors was mixed with too much sand and not enough cement in order to increase builders’ profits.
Italian state television showed pictures of core samples taken from the hospital’s walls crumbling as soon as they were removed.
The hospital authorities have now been given a month to evacuate the 400-bed complex and remove beds and medical equipment.
Environmental protection agencies say there are five hundred more hospitals and hundreds more schools and public works projects in Italy which have been built without proper attention to seismic risk.
The walls of a newly built hospital in L’Aquila in central Italy – hit by a catastrophic earthquake earlier this year – cracked and the building had to be abandoned.
Earthquake proofing is patchy in one of Europe’s most earthquake-prone countries.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Six die in China bridge landslide
July 25th, 2009 |
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At least six people have been killed in a landslide in the Chinese province of Sichuan.
The landslide also destroyed a bridge that is a major link to areas where reconstruction work is being carried out after last year’s earthquake.
Falling rocks dislodged by heavy rain smashed into the bridge in Wenchuan county, sending vehicles plunging into the river.
Rescue officials warned that the number of dead might rise.
The China Daily newspaper said more than 10,000 vehicles crossed the bridge each day and it was a lifeline for the reconstruction effort.
Wenchuan was the epicentre of the earthquake last May in which more than 85,000 people lost their lives. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
EU proposes Italy earthquake aid
July 23rd, 2009 |
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The European Commission has proposed giving 494m euros (£425m; $703m) in aid to Italy to help with the aftermath of the earthquake in L’Aquila.
The aid would be the largest ever payout from the EU’s solidarity fund.
Tens of thousands of people have been living in temporary accommodation since the 6.3-magnitude earthquake on 6 April, which killed nearly 300 people.
The aid, which has to be approved by EU member states, is aimed at rebuilding infrastructure and temporary housing.
It cannot be used to compensate people for the loss of private property.
A Commission spokesman said the use of the money would be very carefully monitored.
"The scale of the earthquake, whose consequences continue to be borne by the local population, justifies commensurate support from the EU"
Pawel Samecki, European Commissioner for Regional Policy
After previous earthquakes in southern Italy, only a fraction of reconstruction aid reached the victims, amid allegations of corruption and Mafia interference, says the BBC’s Oana Lungescu in Brussels.
Roberto Saviano, the best-selling author of a book about organised crime, Gomorrah, recently warned that the flood of aid into L’Aquila and the surrounding region would be a prime target for the Mafia.
But the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Pawel Samecki, said the "scale of the earthquake, whose consequences continue to be borne by the local population, justifies commensurate support from the EU".
The Italian government applied for aid from the solidarity fund, which allows member states to draw emergency aid for major natural disasters from the EU budget, in early June. It estimates that the cost of repairing the damage will be 10bn euros ($14.2bn).
Italy is also eligible for over 70m euros ($100m) from other EU programmes to kick-start the regional economy and rebuild the historic centre of L’Aquila.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Quake brings New Zealand closer to Australia
July 22nd, 2009 |
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South Island moves 30cm towards Australia after 7.8-magnitude quake
As countries with strong national identities, it can safely be said that Australia and New Zealand are worlds apart. However, a strong earthquake in the region has brought the fierce rivals closer – 30cm to be precise.
The 7.8-magnitude quake appears to have jolted the South Island and moved it towards Australia, the New Zealand Herald reported.
Global positioning systems showed that Te Anau, a town in the remote Fiordland region, was now 10cm closer to Australia, it said, while the South Island’s south-western tip, Puysegur Point, was 30cm (11.8ins) closer.
Ken Gledhill, director of the research organisation GNS Science GeoNet, told TVNZ that the changes showed the immensity of the forces involved.
“New Zealand has been very fortunate. This earthquake anywhere else would have caused huge damage,” he said.
“It’s taken us closer to Australia. The country is deforming all the time because of being on the plate boundary, but this has done it in a few seconds, rather than waiting hundreds of years.”
Although the earthquake was New Zealand’s biggest in 78 years, it caused only slight damage to buildings and property when it struck Fiordland, west of Invercargill, New Zealand’s southernmost and westernmost city, last Thursday.
The mayor of Invercargill, Tim Shadbolt, told Radio New Zealand News that he welcomed the fact that parts of the country were now closer to Australia.
“I’m absolutely delighted. I built an international airport in Invercargill because we’re the closest city in New Zealand to Australia and it will become more and more realistic the closer we get,” he said.
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Close neighbours: Quake edges NZ towards Australia
July 22nd, 2009 |
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A massive earthquake last week has brought New Zealand closer to Australia, scientists say.
The 7.8 magnitude quake in the Tasman Sea has expanded New Zealand’s South Island westwards by about 30cm (12in).
Seismologist Ken Gledhill, of GNS Science, said the shift demonstrated the huge force of the tremor.
But the BBC’s Andre Vornic says that with more than 2,250km (1,400 miles) separating the countries, the narrowing will not exactly be visible.
Nor, as the New Zealand media have observed, is it likely to bring cheaper air fares.
Tsunami alert
The quake was powerful enough to generate a small tsunami with a wave of one metre (3ft) recorded on the west coast of New Zealand.
People in coastal areas were for a time advised to move to higher ground.
While the south-west of the South Island moved about 30cm towards Australia, the east coast moved only one centimetre westwards, Dr Gledhill said.
"Basically, New Zealand just got a little bit bigger is another way to think about it," he told AFP news agency.
Although it was New Zealand’s biggest earthquake in 78 years, it caused only slight damage to buildings and property when it struck in the remote Fiordland region west of Invercargill last Thursday.
"For a very large earthquake, although it was very widely felt, there were very few areas that were severely shaken," Dr Gledhill said.
GNS Science is a research organisation run by the New Zealand government.
New Zealand frequently suffers earthquakes because it sits on the meeting point of the Australian and Pacific continental plates.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Quake sparks NZ-Australia alert
July 15th, 2009 |
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A 7.8-magnitude earthquake has shaken New Zealand, prompting a tsunami warning for parts of the Pacific Ocean.
The quake struck off the south-west tip of New Zealand, 161km (100 miles) west of Invercargill at a depth of 33km (20 miles), the US Geological Survey said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a "non-expanding regional tsunami warning" for nearby areas.
There were no immediate reports of damage or any evidence that a tsunami had formed after the quake.
"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines in the region near the epicentre within minutes to hours," the warning centre said in a statement.
The quake was detected at 0922GMT (2122 local time), reports said.
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China Earthquake Displaces 250,000 People
July 11th, 2009 |
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GUANTUNXIANG, China — Thousands camped in tents in southwestern China on Saturday after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake destroyed thousands of homes, killed one person and injured 320, state media reported.
At the epicenter of Thursday’s qua…
Italy’s minimalist G8 summit
July 11th, 2009 |
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By Bridget Kendall
BBC diplomatic correspondent, L’Aquila
Switching the venue of this year’s G8 summit to an active earthquake zone sounded like a hostage to fortune.
Why invite the world’s most powerful leaders to perch on the same precarious spot of the Earth’s crust which in April killed 300 people and left 60,000 others homeless
Just think what global chaos would ensue if – mid session – the ground opened up and swallowed them all.
When the town of L’Aquila was rocked by a new – though less powerful – set of tremors last Friday, the summit’s prospects began to look decidedly dicey.
‘A good idea’
In the town centre many buildings were already cracked and cordoned off. On every corner caved-in roofs and ripped-out walls hinted at the prospect of new collapses to come. It felt as though at any minute it could all start to shake again.
I had visions of us journalists stuck, incommunicado and cowering under tables in the so-called media village. Reporters turned refugees, caught in a new disaster zone, while summit leaders were airlifted out to Rome.
But in the event, nothing happened. Not a tremble.
To my surprise earthquake survivors living in local tent camps thought the summit an excellent idea.
What better way to draw attention to the fact their lives had been reduced to rubble, than to pull in the likes of George Clooney and other celebrity hangers-on who tend to pitch up at major summits.
"At one formal function, the eyes of a weary Barack Obama glazed over and his shoulders slumped. Not just us hacks, it seems, were getting by on hard mattresses with very little sleep"
"My home won’t get repaired for another three or four years. The entire tower block fell on top of it. Any publicity is welcome," said one woman, Anna, sitting with her neighbours under a sun parasol outside her blue canvas home.
The pathway between the tents was lined with drying washing and children’s bicycles. A hand-painted notice, decorated in big childish crayon, announced it was Butterfly Row.
There was also Cat Alley, and Moon Street, all clearly marked. An air of semi-permanence had set in.
Roughing it
In keeping with the earthquake tragedy, the summit itself had an air of austerity. So different from the usual lavish attempts to promote a country at its best.
President Putin revamped an entire 18th Century palace in St Petersburg. Tony Blair took over one of Scotland’s grandest hotels.
But Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi commandeered the local barracks of the Finance Police and required world leaders and their delegations to sleep in dormitories on site.
"How is the accommodation for VIPs" I asked one UN official.
He sighed and replied wearily: "It’s not quite what we’re used to."
He was lucky. Some of the journalists unable to find places to stay locally were reduced to begging space among the tents of the earthquake refugees. Our BBC team drove back nightly over the mountains to a village two hours away.
Also minimalist and unpredictable were the communications facilities. It was almost impossible to find out schedules or contact numbers for delegations. The only truly reliable information was the time of the prime minister’s late afternoon press conference.
That you could not avoid. On large screens, beaming down at you would be the unmistakable jovial grin of Mr Berlusconi.
And if you did miss it, never mind. It was played over and over again.
Press conferences by those with critical views, like the so-called G5 group of emerging countries (India, Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico)seemed to occur with almost no prior warning or publicity.
It was almost as though these Asian and Latin American giants were G8 dissidents, deliberately kept to the fringe.
The same world
One morning we arrived at the media centre to find the broadband connection we were using had been cut off. Local Italian technicians claimed it was on the orders of the Italian authorities.
A few hours later it was restored. But in situations like this, you soon start to get paranoid. Was this an attempt to control our output to what could be monitored
Probably not, but – instead of the usual eagerness for media coverage – it felt distinctly odd to be prevented from telling the world what was going on.
In some ways this new "bare bones" G8 style suits the mood of the moment.
For a change the journalists were not kept 50 miles away from the leaders, or worse – as has happened – sequestered on a separate island.
The summiteers were a short walk away. It felt as though we could keep them under our gaze.
At one formal function, the eyes of a weary Barack Obama glazed over and his shoulders slumped. Not just us hacks, it seems, were getting by on hard mattresses with very little sleep.
This year, in L’Aquila, we were all part of the same world.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.