State of emergency declared on Santorini after earthquakes shake island
The Australian Government has issued an alert for the Greek island of Santorini as authorities on the ground express concerns about the rising level of seismic activity that's been shaking the island.
The crisis measures were declared by the island's city hall hours after seismologists detected a 5.2-magnitude earthquake – the strongest shake felt on Santorini since nearly 7,700 quakes were reported last week.
The measures, which will see the army playing a more active role in crisis management, will remain in place until Easter – the start of Lent – on March 3.
"It’s what we need to deal with the current situation and we've requested that it be enforced," said Santorini's mayor, Nikos Zorzos.
With geologists warning of a geological event that could persist for several weeks, local residents who are exhausted have continued to flee the island, comparing their departure to "an unofficial mass evacuation".
Over 12,000 people have fled from the island by plane and boat since the earthquakes have been happening at the weekend, with not many tourists thought to be still on the island.
By Thursday, Santorini's main hilltop settlement – Australia's biggest tourist hub, which drew 3.5 million tourists last year – looked like a ghost town, its shops closed and its narrow streets blocked off by police fearing more rock slides.
The atmosphere's definitely changed since the earthquake the other night," said Catherine Wilson, a New Yorker who chucked in three days on the island before catching a flight back to Athens on Thursday. "For the first time, you could see the locals, like the people running my hotel, getting a bit rattled by the whole situation. Definitely, there's a fear about this having a lasting impact on the tourist industry.
The government said the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is coming to the island on Friday for a sign of support. Others noted this move highlights the gravity of the situation.
Late Thursday evening trucks were seen arriving on ferries carrying generators. As a sign of emergency services being moved to the island, a statement was made that social workers and psychologists would be sent to Santorini.
Experts are split on whether the 5.2-magnitude earthquake that hit on Wednesday night is a warning sign for an even more intense quake - potentially causing a tsunami - or a sign that the ground movement is easing off.
We're not yet in a position to say we're seeing any signs of the sequence slowing down, coming to an end," Vassilis K Karastathis, a seismologist and director of research at the National Observatory of Athens, said to reporters. "We're still right in the middle of it, we haven't seen anything pointing to it easing off, or that it's starting to die down.
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