A Fire Service officer talks on his phone at the port of Athinios, where a tide gauge was installed on Wednesday to monitor the sea level amid concerns about a tsunami. The residents of Santorini who decided to stay put are trying to take the earthquake swarm that began in late January in stride, listening to the experts. [Yiannis Liakos/InTime News]
The earthquake swarm of the past few weeks is practically the only thing people on Santorini talk about these days, even during the brief lulls in the tremors. Their main hope is that if a “big one” does hit the Aegean island, it will happen during the day and not at night.
“Last Monday’s magnitude-5.3 quake was the only time I told my kids, ‘put on your shoes’,” says Minas Alefrangis, a restaurateur and community president of Akrotiri, a village on the island’s southeast and site of the famous Bronze Age Minoan settlement that was wiped out by the massive volcanic eruption of the 16th century BC.
He is trying to take the earthquake swarm in stride, but admits that the stronger overnight tremor alarmed him.
Attitudes toward the recent seismic activity vary on the popular Greek holiday island. Some express their concerns openly; others keep them to themselves. However, everyone is trying to be patient, but they are also considering the future, even though it is impossible to say when or how the phenomenon will end.
“We’re confused, waiting to see how long it lasts and how it will affect the [tourism] season,” the head of the Atlantida Association of Rooms-to-let, Lefteris Anapliotis, tells Kathimerini.
“At this time of year, we should be seeing a brisk pace in bookings, but reservations are being made frugally,” he adds.
“We know that we’ll be shaken; the island has raised us that way,” notes Alefrangis. “We have spoken to the residents and to the associations, telling them not to panic. We’ve advised that they listen to the experts, but also told them that if they’re having trouble coping, then perhaps they’d be better off leaving for a while.”
Door-to-door
Akrotiri has 340 permanent residents, of whom 180 have stayed put. Most of those who decided to leave did so last week, joining dozens of non-local workers, mainly in construction, and their families who abandoned the island en masse.
When the seismic phenomenon began at the end of January, members of the Community of Akrotiri carried out a door-to-door survey to see who was still there and to ask whether they needed any special assistance. This mainly concerns elderly residents and those with mobility problems. Similar initiatives were carried out and are still being carried out across the island.
“We drop by every day to ask if people need anything,” says Alifrangis.
Communities are also putting together teams of volunteers who have each been assigned a specific task to ensure that residents can be brought safely to the muster areas as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible if the situation suddenly becomes dangerous.
Rania Haralambidou is a chemist with a shop in Emborio and has lived on the island for most of her adult life.
“It would be naive not to be afraid, but it’s important not to panic. We all know that Santorini is prone to earthquakes; it is a natural phenomenon that is innate to this island. So, life carries on, the pharmacy is open as usual and we’re on call when we have to be,” she tells Kathimerini.
Of the six people she employs at her business, three who have young children decided to leave for Athens a couple of weeks ago, but are planning to return soon.
“How long can people stay away from their usual activities? We’re listening to the experts and waiting to see how the situation evolves,” he says.
Inspections and monitoring
In the meantime, a team of civil engineers deployed earlier this week to inspect the island’s schools found no serious structural issues at the facilities. On Wednesday afternoon, the members of another team were busy trying to install a tide gauge at the port of Athinios before nightfall, in order to record sea levels and monitor any significant changes.
Similar equipment had been installed on Tuesday at a fishing refuge on Santorini’s southeastern coast by the Tsunami Warning Center of the National Observatory’s Geodynamic Institute, as the spike in seismic activity in the marine area southwest of neighboring Amorgos had prompted an alert.