Quake damage in Evia revised
A series of earthquakes that struck the central Evia village of Psachna over the past week caused much more damage than initial inspections suggested, experts said yesterday, while seismologists downplayed fears of further strong quakes in the area. Government inspectors yesterday said a total of 48 houses will have to be demolished due to earthquake damage, while another 246 are temporarily uninhabitable and will require repairs. This followed five moderately strong earthquakes that registered over 4 on the Richter scale between last Friday and Thursday – when three quakes occurred between 4 and 6.38 a.m. Initially, seven houses had been scheduled for demolition. Inspections will continue today, with 674 buildings having been examined so far. Yesterday, Manolis Skordilis, a Thessaloniki University professor of seismology, told Kathimerini that seismic activity at Psachna, 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of Halkida and 70 km (43 miles) north of Athens, appeared to be on the wane. The strongest was 4.9 Richter, on Wednesday.
