Borkena
Toronto – The Ethiopian government announced Saturday that it is working on evacuating over 80,000 residents from the areas identified as epicenters of the earthquake that has been recurring this week.
The Ministry of Government communication services said 12 kebeles have been identified as priority areas for the evacuation.
Without specifying details, a brief Ministry statement said emergency workers have been deployed to the area that are designated as priority areas for the evacuation. How soon it is starting and how long it takes to finalize it are unspecified.
The areas to be evacuated from are said to be very close to the epicenter of the earthquake.
Ethiopia has been experiencing recurring earthquakes throughout the weeks in areas adjoining Afar, Amhara and Oromo regions of the country.
The magnitude of it has been increasing. The Ethiopian government communication services department has confirmed that a 5.8 Richter scale earthquake was registered this week.
No major damage was highlighted in the government’s statement. However, reports that emerged on Sunday indicated that one elementary and one high school were damaged due to the natural disaster.
Video footage that was circulating on social media purportedly shows fissures along the Addis Ababa Metehara road. There were also other videos showing muddy hot springs from an apparent volcanic activity mainly in Fentale Mountain areas.
The shocks of the earthquakes were felt up to the capital Addis Ababa and also Dessie, in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government said that it is “following the developments from experts in the field and called on Ethiopians to pay attention to cautionary messages.”
Quake frequency is unprecedented in Ethiopia’s recorded history. It was mostly occurring during night time. Residents in the affected areas have been sleeping outside for almost a week. Residents in Addis Ababa were not feeling either. There were social media reports that residents were rushing out of apartments in the middle of the night as the shocks from the earthquake from hundreds of kilometers were felt.
“Volcano Discovery” on Sunday reported that the latest earthquake in Ethiopia was recorded 51 km NNW of Āwash. It measured 4.3 magnitude.
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The earthquake is now traveling and hitting towns faraway from where it originated. There was a measurable tremor of 4.6 at Bedesa, a town in the middle of the Chercher Highlands in Western Hararghe which is about 150 km from Awash, where it started. The country’s capital Addis with its 5 million+ is about 200km from Awash. The Rift Valley seems to be dancing all the way to Zimbabwe. Very worrisome. Let’s hope and pray that it will stop before it causes the worst natural disaster that country ever seen. Since AWOL soldiers and truant rude students overthrew the late Emperor in 1974, houses have been built with no regards to mitigation of natural disasters like earthquakes. They have been and are still built solely on the whims of the deep pockets. The speed you will get the building permit depends how much you greased the palms of the officials in charge with. From what I hear, except those high rise buildings built during the late Emperor’s time, the rest built since there are like a stack of concrete sitting on foundations of glass. May The Almighty Forbid, if an earthquake of more than 7.0 or more on the Richter Scale hits the Awash area, I don’t want to even think about the scenario in large cities nearby and including the capital itself. They better think about reinforcing the glittering high rises they built since 1974. They should learn from Taiwan’s bitter lesson from the late 1990’s major earthquake.
You may have heard it already. A powerful earthquake tipping 7.1 had hit Tibet region in China today and killed more than 100 people. It came from nowhere and destroyed villages killing many people. If an earthquake of that magnitude hits any one of those countries in the Horn of Africa except Djibouti, untold number of citizens will perish. All those nations are sitting on a moving plate. The sleeping monster, The Great Rift Valley have been dozing off for a long time and it seems it is up and at’em now. The people of those countries should not let their guard down.
This earthquake is not letting up at all. Now it is hitting places faraway from its center. Yesterday it shook Gelemso that is close to 100 km away from Awash with a 4.5 tremor. It must have terrorized residents there. There are several members of my Itu clan who live there. I will try to call relatives who live in the capital to find out more about it and if there were any casualties. We should remember none of homes in the entire country are built earthquakes in mind except a few of those built in the capital before 1974, Gelemso is a diverse town where many ethnic groups have lived there in harmony for decades until bigots came into town in the early 1990’s. But still it has retained its harmonious life since then. Let’s all hope and pray everyone is safe. Insha’Allah!