Three minor earthquakes were felt in Israel on Wednesday, causing considerable panic but no injuries or significant damage to property.
At least three earthquakes and a number of aftershocks were felt in Israel and beyond its borders in less than a 24-hour period. Early Wednesday morning, an earthquake that registered 4.1 on the Richter scale shook northern Israel. Shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday evening, a slightly larger quake that registered 4.5 with an epicenter near the Sea of Galilee was felt throughout the region ranging from the Golan Heights to the greater Tel Aviv region, as well as in Lebanon and Syria. After midnight two smaller quakes that both registered 3.2 were recorded.
One resident of the Sharon region northeast of Tel Aviv said he was sitting in his living room when the building started to shake and the sofa moved. "It was scary," he said.
Ahikam Moshe David of the Jezreel Valley city of Afula reported that residents of the city had felt the quake strongly. "Chairs moved and the bed shook. There was a lot of panic, especially because the kids were outside because it's summer vacation. It was scary. We didn't feel [the earthquakes] in the morning."
Gil, who lives in Tiberias, close to the epicenter of the 4.5 earthquake Wednesday evening said his home "began to shake" and there was noise that sounded like heavy road machinery. He said he ran to his brother's room and told him to leave the house, fearing it would collapse.
"In addition to the cracks on the outside of my building, there's a new crack in the wall of my room," Gil said.
Dr. Avi Shapira of the National Earthquake Preparedness Committee in the National Infrastructures Ministry told Israel Hayom that "we can say with certainty that a major earthquake will occur in Israel."
Modern-day Israel lies on the western side of the East African Rift, a divergent boundary between two major tectonic plates. On Jan. 1, 1837, an earthquake that researchers believe to have been at least a 6.5 on the Richter scale shook the Galilee. Homes collapsed in Safed and some people were trapped beneath rubble for nearly a week. The same quake killed 600 people in Tiberias and leveled every structure in the village of Jish. In 1927, an earthquake whose epicenter was pinned at the northern part of the Dead Sea left nearly 300 dead – 130 in Jerusalem alone – and caused damage to cities as far apart at Tiberias, Jerualem, Jericho and Nablus.
The warnings of Shapira and other experts have not gone unheeded. Israel Hayom has learned that the Construction and Housing Ministry has a new plan for coping with a major earthquake in Israel. The plan covers a series of actions that would have to be taken after a large-scale earthquake that caused extensive damage, including evacuating urban residents to open areas, preparing 172,000 temporary housing units, and constructing camps and caravan sites to provide emergency shelter.
The plan was compiled at the order of Construction and Housing Minister Yoav Gallant, following his recent visit to Japan, a nation with vast experience handling and preparing for earthquakes.
"A 50-year period carries a 5% probability of a major earthquake," the document states.
The plan addresses a scenario in which a large-scale earthquake would leave 7,000 dead, 8,600 badly injured, 9,700 trapped, and some 170,000 homeless. The plan projects that a major earthquake could cause significant damage to 28,600 buildings.
In light of such daunting figures, Gallant has taken steps to prepare. His ministry has established sites to be used for temporary accommodation for people who lose their homes.
While the strategies laid out in the ministry's plan could also be applied in a wartime mass casualty scenario, the plan focuses mainly on preparations for a major earthquake.
Gallant is also sending a delegation of Israeli emergency services personnel to Japan to learn coping strategies for a mass seismic disaster. The visit is scheduled for the near future.
