PM to visit quake-stricken Cretan region, pledge relief plan
After signing a major defense deal with France in Paris on Tuesday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is flying back to Greece and heading to his native Crete to visit the region of Iraklio following a destructive earthquake on Monday that claimed one life and injured at least 20 people.
Mitsotakis is expected to tour damaged areas and meet with local officials and experts, before announcing a 25-30-million-euro relief and rebuilding plan designed along similar lines to the emergency measures that went into effect in the wake of last year’s floods in Karditsa in central Greece and this summer’s fires on the island of Evia.
In the meantime, teams of engineers were dispatched to Crete on Tuesday to begin inspections on buildings and infrastructure damaged by Monday’s 5.8-maginitude quake.
According to local reports, more cracks appeared on buildings at the epicenter of the tremor in Arkalochori and at other villages in the vicinity after a strong aftershock on Tuesday morning, measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale.
