It didn’t make headlines internationally, but the Chong-Alay region that I’ve been doing so much work with has in the past week has experienced a swarm of 11 earthquakes above 4.5 magnitude (out of 16 total recorded). The largest of these, around 5.9 magnitude according to USGS (initially reported as 7.0 by local authorities, now said to be 6.5) on May 3rd, was strong enough to evacuate some buildings in Osh, and several of the aftershocks have been up to 5.8 in magnitude. Technically, they were centered in Tajikistan, but their heaviest impact has been felt here. They may not have made international headlines or even local headlines, but they have been devastating nonetheless. I want to share with you a bit of what I’ve been able to learn about the situation.
First things first – while a wall did fall on one man, he survived and was quickly rescued. So far, no deaths have been reported, which is certainly good news and a relief to me to know that my colleagues and friends are all alive.
However, the earthquakes were strong enough to cause some serious damage. 529 homes are reported to have been damaged beyond repair, while 6 were destroyed completely. According to Kloop.kg, 3,136 residents have been moved into emergency tent housing as a result out of a population of 25,000, or 12.5% of the entire population of the rayon (!).
Additionally, many schools were damaged, and at least one will need to be completely rebuilt before the start of school next year. One of the polyclinics (reported as a hospital) that I work with in Karamyk village on the Tajikistan border was also damaged beyond repair.
Ironically, on my second trip to Chong-Alay region last summer, I did an hour-long session on earthquake preparedness, which included topics like the importance of evacuation drills and what to do during the actual shaking, among other topics. The training was designed and developed by my colleague Emily, but I brought it with me to do on some of my traveling trainings. While I don’t think my training directly helped the situation, I like to think that a few people, perhaps the staff of that clinic, remembered what we had discussed and were able to apply it.
Luckily, there are already tent schools set up to handle the closed schools (impressive, considering that May 5-9 is a holiday long weekend here), and other students have been reassigned to different schools. They will use these until the end of the school year on May 25, before conducting repairs on the schools that were damaged and replacing one of them entirely.
Sadly, this is not the only tragedy to befall Osh oblast in the past week or so; on April 29, an enormous landslide in Ayu village in Uzgen rayon killed 24 people. Another landslide in Alay region occurred just a few days later.
In the spring, Kyrgyzstan receives heavy rain and snow, leading to increased risks of avalanches and landslides, but tragedies of this magnitude are rare, and there’s been a large outpouring of grief and support on social media for the victims and their families. The government has declared official mourning periods and is working to provide material and financial support to those affected, from what I understand.
This is also not the first time I’ve felt an earthquake during my service… in fact, I’ve felt so many that I’ve lost count. One time, I was typing on my blog, and felt an earthquake, typed into the post “(PS whoa just felt an earthquake)” and just kept on blogging. Central Asia has a very seismically active history, so it’s only a matter of time before I feel another.Sadly, there isn’t much we can do to stop these kinds of natural disasters – only prepare for them as best we can.
Sadly, there isn’t much we can do to stop these kinds of natural disasters – only prepare for them as best we can, and support those affected after. If I learn of a way that you can contribute to the victims and their families, I will certainly update this post with the information.