Global Post
Dec 14 2013
25 years on, Armenians count cost of quake that shook USSR
Sitting on her bed in a converted metal shipping container that was
only meant to be a temporary home, Anahit Sahradyan recalls the moment
25 years ago when a devastating earthquake tore through northern
Armenia — and her life.
“Before my eyes all the buildings just crumbled like sandcastles,”
said Sahradyan, who only just managed to escape with her family.
Now, a quarter of a century after the disaster, the 58-year-old
grandmother and her family are still struggling to get by in one of
the roughly 3,700 containers that pockmark the city of Gyumri and
still house thousands who lost their homes.
“The earthquake did not only destroy our homes, it destroyed our
lives,” Anahit told AFP. “25 years on it has not become any easier.”
Catastrophe struck at just before midday on December 7, 1988, when an
earthquake measuring around 6.9 magnitude hit the region.
The tremor flattened entire towns, claiming the lives of some 25,000
people and leaving another half a million without homes.
The quake was not only felt in Armenia: the shock waves from the
tragedy shook the entire Soviet Union and reverberated around the
world.
Soviet media, which were growing increasingly open at the time, blamed
the high death toll on shoddy construction work and corruption. For
many, the disaster — coming two years after the Chernobyl nuclear
plant meltdown — highlighted the incurable failings of a sclerotic
system.
On a visit to New York at the time, Soviet supremo Mikhail Gorbachev
reached out to the United States for assistance for the first time
since World War II. A massive international campaign saw help flood
across the Iron Curtain from around the globe.
‘Armenia is better prepared now’
At the time, Soviet authorities pledged to rebuild the region in two
years but — as Communism crumbled into chaos and the USSR stumbled
toward its eventual dissolution in 1991 — those plans were forgotten.
After a decade of neglect reconstruction work only really started in
1998 and since then swathes of the areas affected have been rebuilt.
In Gyumri — the second-largest city in Armenia, around 125 kilometres
(75 miles) north of the capital, Yerevan — the evidence of the
international help received can be seen in the names of city’s
different areas, which include the Norwegian and Austrian districts.
Local officials now claim that most of the building work is complete
and that only a small number of inhabitants are left to be rehoused.
Many of the thousands still living in containers lost private —
rather than state-owned — homes in the quake and do not qualify for
compensation, officials say.
“By 2014 we are planning to build another 414 flats and complete the
programme of providing flats for the families that lost their houses
in the earthquake,” said Gyumri’s mayor, Samvel Balasanyan.
The authorities say that while recovery and reconstruction has been
the priority, they have also stepped up precautions in case of another
quake.
Nestled amid the Caucasus mountains, Armenia is located in an area of
high seismic activity where the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates
collide.
While Soviet planners underestimated the potential size of earthquakes
in the region, new construction is designed to withstand a major
tremor, the authorities say.
Also, with the help of experts from Europe, some 130 stations around
the country monitor seismic activity and any shifts in the earth’s
surface.
“Today Armenia is undoubtedly better prepared for an earthquake than
in 1988 as the seismic monitoring is on a far better level than
before,” said Sergey Nazaretyan, the head of Gyumri’s monitoring
centre.
But despite the safeguards the region has to brace itself for more
convulsions, Nazaretyan said.
“Earthquakes always repeat and the further we get from the last one
the closer we get to the next one.”
‘We go to sleep scared’
Many in the region say they still live in fear.
In the centre of Gyumri — a city wracked by poverty and unemployment
— 22-year-old Aida and her five children live with another 15
families in the dingy shell of a building left half-destroyed by the
earthquake.
“We have nowhere to go and have given up hope of ever receiving a new
apartment,” said Aida, who refused to give her second name.
Recently part of a nearby building in a similar condition collapsed,
heightening her anxiety about what would happen if a major earthquake
were to strike again.
“Every night we go to bed fearing that the ceiling could collapse on
our children as they sleep,” she said.
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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/131214/25-years-armenians-count-cost-quake-shook-ussr