Earthquake hits Azores island, locals flee with tears and uncertainty

Fatima and Antonio Soares, who are in their 70s, and scores of other residents opted to leave their home on Saturday, a week after thousands of tremors began to shake the volcanic, mid-Atlantic island.

 

The retired couple had their photo taken outside their beloved house before departing Sao Jorge, an island in Portugal’s Azores that is bracing for tragedy after a series of mild earthquakes, with no idea when they could return.

 

Seismologists are concerned that the more than 12,700 tremors, with magnitudes ranging from 0.3 to 3.3, could spark a volcanic eruption or a severe earthquake.

 

‘I requested the taxi driver to take a picture of us because I’m not sure if my house would look the same when I get back,’ Fatima explained as the couple waited for a flight to Terceira, a neighbouring island.

 

‘Right away, tears started to fall,’ she said.

 

The couple, who were on the island when a large earthquake happened in 1964, are currently staying in a tiny hotel but wish to return to their island, which has an estimated population of 8,400 people, as soon as possible.

 

‘It’s difficult to leave our house at this age,’ Antonio explained.

 

Hundreds of other Sao Jorge residents also left early on Saturday, according to government figures. About 1,250 people left the island on March 23 and 24 alone, the latest government figures revealed.

 

On Wednesday, the CIVISA seismo-volcanic surveillance centre in the region raised the volcanic warning to Level 4, indicating that the volcano could erupt for the first time since 1808.

 

‘We used to get a few earthquakes a year in Sao Jorge, but now we’re talking thousands,’ seismologist Joao Fontiela, who is on the island building up seismic monitoring stations, told Lusa news agency.

 

He believes that the current scenario will stretch on for several months.

 

CIVISA stated that while there is ‘no sign that a volcanic eruption is near,’ such a scenario cannot be ruled out. According to the report, the number of earthquakes is still higher than typical.

 

Authorities are working up measures to keep livestock and other animals safe, while the island’s ports stated on Saturday that they were ready in case of a natural disaster.