Quake scars still fresh
2004-05-19 12:11
Algiers - One year on, Algiers and the surrounding region that was ravaged by a killer earthquake last May still bear the painful scars of a catastrophe that claimed some 2 300 lives and sharpened the trauma of a country trying to recover from a decade of bloody disarray.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has estimated damage at $5bn from the devastating tremor.
"It is unlikely the situation will return to normal for at least two years," he has cautioned.
The last official toll of the quake, which hit on May 21, 2003 with a strength of 6.8 on the open-ended Richter scale, listed 2 277 dead and more than 11 000 injured, when it was published a month after the quake.
More bodies have been recovered since, though many may never be identified.
"Every time I pass by vacant lots where buildings once stood, I remember that horrible night when my friends, my students disappeared, forever," said a tearful Meriem, a teacher in Boumerdes, a town 50km east of the capital and the city worst hit in the disaster, along with neighbouring Zemmouri.
She is overcome with emotion when she recalls the "beautiful young girls, full of life and hope who were preparing for their secondary school leaving exams, the teachers, my friends, covered, crushed by tons of concrete".
Tens of thousands of people still live in temporary housing incongruously known as "chalets", measuring only 30 square metres but often sheltering families of eight to 10, left homeless by the quake and awaiting a new residence.
The scope of the tremor touched off a great wave of international solidarity. France, the former colonial power, notably released the same month a special loan of $59m in reconstruction aid for Algeria.
Thousands of aftershocks continued to hit the region after the big one on May 21, sometimes triggering panicky flight by terrorised residents.
On May 28, some 330 people were wounded in one such exodus when a strong tremor of 5.8 on the Richter scale followed a few hours after another of 5.2.
On February 11, 2004, another 300 people were wounded in similar circumstances, when a 5.7-point quake again shook Algiers and its surroundings.
Many buildings crumbled like sandcastles in the quake, disclosing major violations of building codes and less than acceptable construction practices.
Building firms and architects were accused of rampant corruption for flouting the most basic security regulations and norms for erecting buildings in an earthquake zone.
An official probe opened by the housing ministry has yet to disclose its findings.