Armenian Earthquakes

Nearly half a million buildings were destroyed. The two quakes were measured as being 6.9 and 5.8 on the Richter scale and could be felt as far away as Georgia, Turkey and Iran. The first quake struck at 11.41am, it was the most powerful of the two and its centre was just three miles from the city of Spitak. It was a city of about 30,000 inhabitants, the city was totally destroyed. The epicenter was close to the earths surface which accounts for the level of destruction. Just four minutes after the first quake the same area suffered a second violent tremor. Buildings that had barely survived the first quake collapsed in seconds. A rupture of the earths surface caused by the quakes, eight miles in length and several feet wide in places was found later.

Many of the buildings in Spitak were cheaply constructed or had either brick or stone roofs which crushed those inside when they collapsed. Leninakan, the second largest city in Armenia had close to 300,000 residents and over 80% of the city’s buildings were destroyed. The sheer scale of the devastation overwhelmed the country’s ability to respond to the rescue operation. Worse was to come, for the officials in charge delayed giving permission for foreigners with specialist equipment permission to enter the area. All foreign rescue and relief workers were in fact ordered out of the area just ten days after the quakes.

The specialist rescue teams that were able to arrive in the area worked for just one week in an attempt to find survivors. The last person rescued alive was found on the 15th, eight days after the quake. Many experts believed that the exact death toll may well be far higher than the 60,000 estimate. Of those that survived many had serious crush injuries, many developed kidney problems following the trauma and later died when local health officials did not have the necessary medical equipment to save them.

When rebuilding began, more attention was paid to using better quality building materials as well as placing a restriction on the height that those buildings can rise to.