TIRANA, Nov 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Forty-nine people died and more than
5,000 have been displaced by the violent earthquake that pulverised homes in
Albania this week, the Prime Minister said in a tally of the damage on
Friday.
The 6.4 magnitude quake that jolted Albania before dawn on Tuesday was the
most deadly and destructive in decades. Whole families were crushed by their
homes while they were sleeping.
The damage was most concentrated near the Adriatic coast in the port city
of Durres and the town of Thumane, where scores of people were trapped
beneath the wreckage of toppled apartments and hotels.
Loved ones and neighbours have watched in agony this week as rescue teams
pulled corpses from the ruins.
On Friday the search effort wound down to focus on one or two sites in
Durres, including a collapsed beach-side hotel.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said that “49 people lost their lives and more than
750 were injured”.
Around 45 people were rescued from the ruins alive by relief teams, who
were backed up by experts from around Europe with dogs, cameras and other
equipment to comb through the rubble.
In Durres and Thumane, almost 2,000 people have been moved into hotels or
other buildings — either because of severe damage to their homes or because
hundreds of aftershocks made their apartments unsafe.
Another 3,480 people in the capital Tirana fled in panic to shelters, with
some now housed in reception centres and many staying in the homes of
relatives, Rama said.
There were no casualties in Tirana but nearly 70 buildings and 250 homes
were damaged, he said.
Teams of experts are being organised to assess the risk of damaged
buildings, said Defence Minister Olta Xhacka, who urged residents to leave
any homes affected by the quake.
“The situation of buildings with damaged structures is as dangerous as on
the first day, so don’t stay there, leave them,” she said.
Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe and its urbanisation
developed chaotically after the fall of communism in the 1990s.
A lot of construction has been done “without a building permit, without
respecting rules… using non-standard materials,” local architect Maks velo
told AFP.
The government has promised to build new houses for earthquake victims by
2020.
Donations in multiple currencies have poured in and are expected to exceed
five million euros ($5.5 million), as well as $1.5 million, Rama said.