Quake spate investigated in Messinia
Experts from the Greek Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization have been dispatched to the southern Peloponnesian region of Messinia to monitor a four-month spike in seismic activity, it was reported on Tuesday.
Scientists from the organization will be working with engineers from the regional authority to assess whether a spate of small quakes in the area are cause for concern, as the mayors of one village rang the alarm bells after a number of stone residences were deemed unfit for habitation.
In the village of Katsaros in the municipality of Oichalia, the mayor said, 20 stone houses have shown signs of dilapidation and have been vacated, while there has also been some minor damage to other homes and the village?s main church.
Speaking on Skai TV on Tuesday, Oichalia Mayor Filippos Babis stressed that the families evacuated from the 20 stone residences have nowhere to stay, and said that he would be assigning them to steel container houses supplied to the municipality after the deadly forest fires of 2007.
The deputy regional governor for the Peloponnese, Dina Nikolaou, meanwhile, has applied to the Ministry of Infrastructure for the delivery of an additional 15 container homes.
