A powerful earthquake struck Morocco on Friday night, killing more than 2,000 people and setting off frantic rescue efforts through rubble-strewn city streets and remote rural areas as some residents sifted through mountains of debris with their bare hands.
The earthquake, which had a magnitude of at least 6.8 and was centered about 50 miles from the southern city of Marrakesh, was the strongest to hit the area in a century, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It rippled through the center of the country, shaking not only Marrakesh but also Agadir, a resort on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, and Ouarzazate, a major city in the southeast.
Much of the affected zone is rural, with many houses made from mud bricks, a traditional construction method that is highly vulnerable to earthquakes and heavy rains.
Scenes of devastation were unfolding across the country. In Marrakesh, the main city of southern Morocco, residents poured out of their homes onto the city’s cobblestone streets to find piles of rubble from buildings that had crumbled around them, including mounds of red dust from the walled old city, or medina.
In the hardest-hit rural areas, Moroccans climbed through the canyons between collapsed homes that cascaded across roads and towns, and tried to retrieve their dead.
About 30 miles southwest of Marrakesh, in the town of Amizmiz near the epicenter, Yasmina Bennani was about to go to sleep on Friday night when she heard a loud noise. The shaking cracked walls, broke vases and lamps, and sent chunks of ceiling falling to the floor, clogging her kitchen sink and stove with dust and debris.
“I felt terrorized,” said Ms. Bennani, 38, a journalist who, like many in the area, lives in a house made of mud bricks. “It didn’t last long, but felt like years.”
At least 2,059 people were killed in the quake, according to the Moroccan interior ministry, and more than 2,000 were injured.
The precise size of the quake was not yet clear. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated its magnitude at 6.8, but the Moroccan geological institute put it at 7.2. That would make it more than twice as large, according to the logarithmic scale on which earthquakes are measured. The U.S. agency said local estimates can often be more accurate, but initial readings of magnitude are measured automatically and need to be reviewed by seismologists.
The contours of the damage were also still taking shape on Saturday. But it was clear that the scope of the catastrophe was extensive, with the rural provinces outside of Marrakesh the hardest hit. According to early breakdowns of casualties by provinces, the death toll was especially heavy in the rural Haouz region southeast of Marrakesh, which includes parts of the High Atlas Mountains.
The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement that more than 300,000 civilians in Marrakesh and its outskirts had been affected by the earthquake. “Many families are trapped under the rubble of…
2023-09-09 18:56:45
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