On the intercalary
day February 29, 1960 at 23:40 local time the Moroccan city Agadir
was hit by a earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 on the Richter scale.
In less than 15 seconds about 15,000 people, a third of the city's
population were killed, and another 12,000 were injured. Although not
a very strong earthquake, yet there was a large number of casualties
due to the fact that the center of the earthquake was located
directly under the city.
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| Agadir, Kasbah (1960) |
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| Agadir, quartier de Founti (1960) |
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| Agadir, quartier de Talbordjt (1960) |
The first rescue
workers were French marines from the aircraft carrier La Fayette and
Moroccan military. But also Dutch, American and Spanish teams arrived
shortly after on the scene. After two days of rescue work the city
was evacuated in order to avoid the spread of disease. Calcium
hydroxide (slaked lime) and DDT were sprayed over the ruins from
lorries and helicopters to control disease and kill the swarms of
flies which were attracted to the scene. Afterwards the devastated
districts were razed to the ground using bulldozers. Thousands of
victims were not salvaged, but found their grave at the site of the
disaster.
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| Agadir, hotel Gautier (1960) |
Movietone (1960)
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