Moscow: The massive earthquake that struck off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula earlier in the day highlighted the region’s preparedness to tackle such high level emergency situations, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Wednesday.
The preventive measures taken forth the earthquake struck “proved” the region’s preparedness, Peskov stated.
“All warning systems worked in a timely manner, and the tsunami evacuation of people from the areas where they needed to be evacuated was organised,” Peskov said during a media briefing.
“In general, the seismic resistance of the buildings proved its worth. Thank God, there were no casualties. And so here, let’s say, technological preparedness – it proved its worth and showed itself to be at a high level,” TASS quoted the Kremlin representative as saying.
The Director of the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergei Tikhotsky, told the state-run news agency that the earthquake that struck Kamchatka early Wednesday was an “expected event of the last 30 years”, giving the people enough time to be prepared, along with the steps already taken to strengthen buildings.
As per Tikhotsky, the most vital and crucial part of the seismic activities has already swept off, which would mean that the aftershocks would not be much worse, or stronger than the initial hits.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the quake’s epicentre was located about 125 km southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a major city in the far eastern region of Russia.
Initially reported as an 8.0 magnitude quake, the USGS later revised its assessment to 8.7, citing updated data.
The earthquake was recorded at a relatively shallow depth of 19.3 kilometres (12 miles), increasing the likelihood of significant surface-level shaking and potential tsunami waves.
(IANS)
