Residents of Samos, who were left homeless by last week’s destructive 6.7 magnitude earthquake, will be temporarily housed in containers, following a decision by Minister of Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarakis.
In a statement, the ministry said on Tuesday that containers from the Zervos migrant reception facility on Samos were being transferred to house the residents whose homes were deemed unsafe.
The ministry said it had so far provided 20 tents, 500 sleeping bags, 1,000 blankets and 265 beds to affected residents. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees sent 100 tents to the island.
A total of 300 buildings on the island have so far been found to be temporarily unsafe to live in during a series of inspections by civil engineers after Friday’s quake.
Samos rises 18-25 centimeters above waterline after earthquake:
A team of Greek scientists from the School of Geology and Geoenvironment at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens went to Samos after the earthquake in order to survey the impact it had on both the island’s topography and the state of its buildings.
According to their findings, the altitude at both the northern and southern parts of the island had permanently elevated 18 to 25 cm from its pre-earthquake elevation, due the tectonic plate activity which caused the earthquake.
The elevation change can clearly be seen in rocks along the shoreline, showing several inches of algae which had been beneath the surface of the water, now above sea level.
