Greek villagers sift through quake-hit homes

VALMI, Greece-Villagers in southern Greece sifted through the rubble of homes and businesses for belongings on Monday, a day after an earthquake killed two people and injured scores of others.The magnitude 6.5 tremor struck 54 km (33 miles) south of the western port city of Patras on Sunday, injuring 152, destroying about 70 homes and damaging more than 300 more.Hundreds of villagers spent the night in tents, in cars or sleeping bags in town squares, too scared to return to their homes, as aftershocks continued through the night."We are destroyed," said a resident of the village of Valmi, one of the hardest hit, who did not want to be named. "The quake was so strong that even graves opened up."A Reuters photographer said more than half of the village's 46 homes had collapsed, adding: "There is a tent wherever there is space. Shop owners are cleaning up smashed glass."Three hundred tents were sent to the region for about 250 people who are estimated to have been left homeless. Authorities have started moving some of the homeless to vacant hotels."Almost every house in Santameri near the epicenter is uninhabitable and the village will soon be evacuated. Residents will sleep outside again tonight," a police officer who declined to be named told Reuters.In the village of Kato Achaia, one man was killed when a building collapsed and an elderly woman who was taken to hospital with injuries died of a heart attack. Authorities said most of those hospitalized had minor injuries. There were no foreigners among them.One 9-year-old girl was among the few people who were trapped in collapsed buildings and rescued soon after the quake.
"Aftershocks will continue for months. We are expecting aftershocks measuring 5-5.5," an official at the Athens Geodynamical Institute told Reuters.Greek emergency services sent more than 200 firefighters to the region, while the government has offered immediate cash assistance of 3,000 euros to those whose homes have been hit.Sunday's quake was felt in Athens and as far away as Italy. In 1999, a deadly tremor with a magnitude of 5.9 killed 143 people in the Greek capital. Greece is often rattled by quakes but most do not cause serious damage.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0968085920080609

As in the days of Noah...