Moroccan homes of masonry & stone likely to raise earthquake toll

MOULAY BRAHIM/MARRAKECH: A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco on Friday night, sending people racing from their beds into the darkened streets and toppling buildings in mountainous villages and ancient cities not built to withstand such force. Updated interior ministry figures on Saturday showed the quake killed at least 1,037 people, the vast majority in Al-Haouz, the epicentre, and Taroudant provinces.
Marrakech’s famous Koutoubia Mosque, built in the 12th century, was damaged, but the extent was not immediately clear. Its 69-metre minaret is known as the “roof of Marrakech.” Moroccans posted videos showing damage to parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city, a Unesco World Heritage site.
The epicentre of tremor was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, 70 kilometres south of Marrakech. Al Haouz is known for scenic villages and valleys tucked in the High Atlas, and villages built into mountainsides. Abderrahim Ait Daoud, head of the town of Talat N’Yaaqoub, told news site 2M that authorities were working to clear roads in Al Haouz Province to allow passage for ambulances and aid to the affected, but said large distances between mountain villages meant it would take time to learn the extent of the damage.

In the village of Tansghart in the Asni area, close to the 6.8 magnitude earthquake’s remote epicentre, nearly all the buildings – traditional structures of mud brick, stone and rough wooden beams – had sustained damage from the quake. The village, on the side of a valley where the road from Marrakech rises up into the High Atlas, was the worst hit of any Reuters journalists saw in rural areas south of Marrakech where officials said most of the more than 1,000 deaths had occurred.
The quake brought down walls made from stone and masonry not designed to withstand quakes, covering whole communities with rubble and leaving residents picking their way precariously through remains. “The problem is that where destructive earthquakes are rare, buildings are simply not constructed robustly enough to cope with strong ground shaking, so many collapse, resulting in high casualties,” said Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. “I would expect the death toll to climb into the thousands once more is known. As with any big quake, aftershocks are likely, which will lead to further casualties and hinder search efforts.”
Strong tremors were also felt in the coastal cities of Rabat, Casablanca and Essaouira. “I was nearly asleep when I heard the doors and the shutters banging,” said Ghannou Najem, a Casablanca resident in her 80s who was visiting Marrakesh when the quake hit. In the mountain village of Moulay Brahim near the quake’s epicentre, rescue teams searched for survivors in the rubble of collapsed houses while residents began digging graves on a nearby hill, AFP correspondents reported. The army set up a field hospital in the village and deployed “significant human and logistical resources” to support the rescue operation, state news agency MAP reported.The Red Cross warned that it could take years to repair the damage.