In Cyprus, in an earthquake zone, old buildings are making people tremble

The Cypriot streets are an alternation of traditional stone houses, with cracked walls and shabby wooden shutters, and concrete residential towers, especially erected in tourist towns.

After the earthquake in the Aegean Sea on October 30 (around XNUMX dead in Greece and Turkey), Cypriots sounded the alarm.

"Badly damaged houses are a danger to public safety," Andreas Theodotou, president of the association of civil engineers, told AFP. "Our main concern concerns buildings built before the 1994 Seismic Code", that is to say "a large majority".

According to the latest Civil Defense report on the risk assessment in Cyprus from 2018, more than 70% of the constructions were older than seismic standards. And more than 50% of stone buildings could be lost in a major earthquake.

Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 invasion of its northern third by the Turkish army in response to a coup attempt to reattach the Mediterranean island to Greece. A buffer zone separates the Republic of Cyprus (south) from the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Many inhabitants have had to leave their homes to take refuge in the north or south of the island depending on their community affiliation. Added to this are economic crises, succession problems or a simple preference for modernity. Result: many homes are no longer maintained.

In Nicosia, the last divided capital in the world, a unique architectural atmosphere emerges linked to the succession of foreign dominations.

But Savvas Louka, a butcher in the old town, is worried.

In February 2019, an uninhabited building in front of his business collapsed due to the rains. "My building is not in good shape either," he says.

Tectonic plates

Cyprus, at the junction of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates, "rests in the alpino-Himalayan seismic zone where 15% of earthquakes in the world occur", underlines Dr Sylvana Pilidou, of the Department of Geological Studies.

"Archaeological findings have revealed that powerful earthquakes hit Cyprus (...) and destroyed its cities."

As a reminder, the island recorded in December a magnitude 5,4 earthquake, whose epicenter was 130 km offshore but which was felt in Nicosia.

In 1953, a double earthquake killed 40 people. Some 1.600 houses were destroyed and 10.000 buildings seriously damaged.

"Coastal towns (...) are in a larger seismic region. But all poorly maintained, old or abandoned buildings across the island are at great risk of damage or even collapse," warns Platonas Stylianou, secretary general of the Technical and Scientific Chamber.

in extremis

What to do to protect the little million inhabitants of Cyprus?

If the new constructions integrate European earthquake standards, there is a "lack of culture" in terms of habitat maintenance and "measures only seem to be taken at the stage of imminent collapse", deplores Mr. Stylianou.

The walls of the house next to that of Savvas Christophidis, architect in Nicosia, were saved at the last minute. Its Turkish-Cypriot owners are settled in the northern part.

The municipality and the management service dedicated to the Ministry of the Interior ended up intervening this year, he says.

But push the double door of this house and you will come across a garden with only a palm tree decoration. “The roof and the whole interior had already collapsed,” says Christophidis.

Maintenance is "above all the responsibility of the owners," recalls Kyriacos Kouros, head of technical services at the Ministry of the Interior. "We must develop a culture" in this sense, he pleads.

Preventive measures, including lists of buildings at risk, are being drawn up according to the authorities.

In 2018, more than 6.350 homes were classified as cultural heritage and protected.

But for Stavroula Thravalou, specializing in civil architecture and heritage conservation at the University of Cyprus, "we must go further, with a strategy (...) of revitalizing abandoned buildings and neighborhoods".

A way, also, to "restore links with the inhabitants", she judges.