Thousands of damage reports after Groningen earthquake
The temporary committee for mining damage in Groningen TCMG received a total of 2,875 damage reports after a 3.4 magnitude earthquake at Westerwijtwerd in the municipality of Loppersumm last week, RTV Noord reports.
Most of the damage reports came from the municipality of Groningen, 1,323 in total. Stadskanaal is the only municipality in the province that had no damage reports. There were also dozens of reports from the province of Drenthe.
82 of the reports were about acutely unsafe situations - situations that can worsen quickly, such as beams that are likely to come loose. Of these, 76 have since been checked. Such reports must be inspected within 48 hours. "The consultants who visited the addresses noticed that people were often more emotional after the quake at Westerwijtwerd than is usually the case with reports of acutely unsafe situations", the committee said.
At 14 addresses the inspectors found such unsafe situations that temporary safety measures were taken. "These were apartments with facade sections detached, a house with floor tiles cracking and ten rental houses with ceiling sections coming off", the TCMG said to the broadcaster.