8.1 Earthquake hits Puquio
An earthquake had hit Puquio, Peru, on 23rd June, 2001, 20:33 GMT (15:33 local time). With a magnitude of 8.1, 108 lives were taken, 1368 people were injured and about 46470 people were homeless. The earthquake was caused by the movements of the Naca Plate and the South American Plate; therefore it was a convergent of plates.
Many of the buildings have been severely damaged and some collapsed. Traffic has been restricted in the city because of fears that the vibrations could have caused more buildings to collapse. Communications have also been cut off owing to the quakes. A tsunami was also caused by the earthquake which lasted for about 1 minute and 39 lives were drowned.
The Government immediately requested donations for food, medicine, blankets and many others more. Emergency workers were sent to go and save lives. They were also sent to distribute foods and medicine to those in need.
There are many ways that can be done to prevent damages that happened in the earthquake. For example, rubber padding can be used underneath buildings, thus the building will not be affected by the vibrations, and thus it will not collapse so easily. Mental preparedness is also important in an area that is most likely to happen earthquake.
Bibliography
Website
http://theearthquakemuseum.blogspot.com/2001/06/6232001-peru-earthquake.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1405287.stm
