Efthimios Lekkas, Professor of Geology at the University of Athens, and a leading expert in earthquakes and natural disasters. He and his team
ADVERTISEMENTEfthimios Lekkas, Professor of Geology at the University of Athens, and a leading expert in earthquakes and natural disasters.
He and his team recently spent five days in Nepal in the aftermath of the country’s devastating earthquake.
The professor explained the absolute destruction they faced in Kathmandu.
“Everything has collapsed in neighbourhoods throughout the capital. As soon as we arrived, the rescue teams were starting their work”.
His experience on the field is huge, he was involved in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
In Nepal, his team advised about the best was to support damaged buildings to prevent the ruins from falling apart.
“People are very afraid,” he said. “During the first weeks or months they will be staying in any available spaces away from their homes. Plus there are a lot of people fleeing Kathmandu, so there are queues stretching for kilometers .. long lines of people waiting for the buses to take them out of the capital.”
“The people in Nepal in general, are survivors and are used to hard living conditions. It is a mountainous region, the most mountainous on the planet. The people there are used to living a simple live with few possessions.”
Lekkas said his information suggests the energy released by the quake unleashed 700 times the power of the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan.
He said he expects another big earthquake during the next few months.