According to the director of the Greek Geodynamic Institute Akis Tselentis, post-earthquake activity is expected to continue in the coming months.
On Wednesday the wider area of Larissa and Trikala was hit by a 6.3-magnitude quake followed by another powerful tremor measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale the next day.
As a result, 520 homes in the villages of Tyrnavos, Damasi, Potamia and Farkadona were deemed uninhabitable.
“t’s a given that post-earthquake activity will be long, at least for 4-5 months, so the best solution is to move earthquake-stricken families to containers,” Mr Tselentis told Kathimerini.
Infrastructure Ministry crews reported damage to dozens of businesses, churches and public buildings, while rockfalls hindered passage on several parts of the road network and water pipes in many areas were cracked and pumping muddy water.
For the next six months the region will be in state of emergency, with local municipal authorities requiring assistance in manpower and funding to restore the damage. Over 300 residents from the village of Damasi have been transferred to a hotel with over 150 people sleeping in tents set up by the army.
“These are people who have animals or business in the village that prevent them from leaving,” Thessaly Regional Governor Kostas Agorastos said.
“We brought in generators to power heaters because it gets bitterly cold at night. In Damasi, four psychologists were brought in from the local health center to talk to residents who were particularly upset, while we also carried out a large number of rapid coronavirus tests,” he added.
Meanwhile, seismologist Gerassimos Papadopoulos from the Institute of Geodynamics at National Observatory of Athens, said that while it is rare phenomenon, both quakes came from different sections of the same fault.
On the same note, seismologist Vassilis Karastathis, the the deputy director of the Athens Geodynamic Institute told reporters that the quake originated in a fault line in the area that has historically not produced temblors of much larger magnitude than Wednesday’s.
“The earthquake had an estimated depth of just 8 kilometers (5 miles) and that was one of the reasons why it was felt so strongly in the region,” he said highlighting that even though post-quake activity appeared normal, experts were monitoring the situation expecting large tremors in the days to come.
Meanwhile, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki stated that this “is almost a twin earthquake to the one measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale which shook the region on midday 03 March, while the revised estimate of this fresh tremor might be even higher”.
Financial assistance applications for Tyrnavos, will open on 3 April while each of the affected municipalities will receive -in total- the amount of 300,000 euros according to Alternate Interior Minister Stelios Petsas.
As early as Monday, the municipalities of Tyrnavos, Elassona and Farkadona will receive the first financial aid in cash so that local residents can then be given amounts ranging from 600 to 6,000 euros to deal with immediate emergencies.