EARTHQUAKE IN LORCA MURICA

Try not to visit Lorca in Murcia at the moment, there was a serious 5.4 earthquake Wed afternoon, 8 people killed and lots of destruction.

Quesada

One member of the Eye on Spain forum who actually lives in Lorca posted on 13th May ..

"Been in & around town today & it's not looking good at all. There was really nothing open whatsoever as they are still inspecting all the buildings. The Architects & Surveyors have a colour coding scheme for damage; Green – No danger to occupyYellow – The owners can enter to collect their valuables etc, but they may not stay as important building work is needed, or the property may be demolished Black, or in some cases Red – No entry at all because of the danger of immediate collapse.
Nearly 6 out of 10 buildings so far inspected all over town are yellow ,red or black. There's not many green at all.For those of you who have visited Lorca & entered by coming off the autovia at j591 down to the fountain roundabout & turned left into the western end of town ( La Viña ), vast areas around here are to be demolished, including 2 out of the 4 apartment blocks on the left & possibly a 3rd. The opposite side of the road fares slightly better but behind is where the 3 story block collapsed (they'll be looking at the construction of this as it wasn't that old !)
The situation is no better at the eastern end of town with many buildings marked for demolition. Of the 3 mercadonas in town none are open ( The one in La Viña is quite likely to be demolished ), the old Eroski centro comercial San Diego is closed although the car park is being used for parking & the road by the main exit , has an emergency field hospital in it. The majority of the main street is closed off . The only supermarket, apart from some smaller ones that is open is the Eroski Parque Almenara ! Where I live in Campillo , quite close to the Parque Almenara, the small village supermarket had people queuing this morning !
The Huerta de la Rueda where the Thursday market is held is an emergency centre combined with rescue workers tents & accomodation & emergency food & water supplies. There's quite a few around here that are likely to be demolished , including the Convento de religiosas Clarissas which is a building of historical importance & will obviously be rebuilt as it's a listed building .
No matter where you turned there were people taking what belongings they could carry from their apartments, those that were considered safe to enter, & loading them in cars & vans. Others could only look at buildings that are in imminent danger of collapse & no one is going to be allowed to enter & will be demolished along with everything inside. In all honesty the amount of fachadas cracked, broken , some barely hanging on to buildings in every street you looked down , makes you wonder how they are allowing anyone to be in the town at all. We helped people carrying stuff to their car but they couldn't take everything & what's left they were hoping to be allowed back for.
The scale of the damage I found was far more than I was expecting , & there's not a part of the town that does not have vast amounts of buildings marked for demolition. If this had occurred in the UK I don't think they would be allowing anyone into the whole of the town , due to H&S, it's THAT BAD! This is going to take many, many years to sort out."

then this afternoon 15th May he posted further ..

"I've just been in earlier & it's even worse than I 1st posted . I had to come back through parts I wasn't in the other day & there's no part, nor...th ,south, east west that isn't badly damaged. There is no direct access from any part of the town to any other part. mind you , on the bright side in the areas that are only superficially damaged the builders are hard at work on repairs & the building companies are delivering materials ...... on a Sunday !"

Commented blogwriter in Quesada 2011-05-15 18:14:18 UTC