Panic during violent earthquake in Morocco: “Bizarre to wake up like this”

“We came back from a three-day tour to the desert last night,” Robin tells NH over the phone. The couple has just woken up after a night full of fear and panic and is clearly still shaken by the natural disaster of the night before. “Because we were very tired, we decided not to enter the medina (old city, ed.) and had something to eat near our Airbnb apartment. Then we went to bed tired.”

Screaming and shouting

Less than half an hour after the couple has fallen asleep, Robin feels the bed shaking gently. “For a moment I thought my friend was spinning. But I heard screaming and shouting and things falling outside. In a panic I got up and lay half over Dominic, everything went back and forth.”

The two sprint out of bed to seek safety outside. “We ran down the stairs and when we stood in the doorframe it stopped. Once we were seated we realized: we are safe. Then the tears came. It was really bizarre to wake up like that.” The damage in their immediate environment is not too bad. “There are cracks in the walls, but fortunately it is a sturdy building,” she says.

Fear of aftershocks

The damage in Robin’s apartment, just outside the old city of Marrakech, may not appear as severe in the photo she took compared to the heavily affected medina a little further away, but it is quite frightening.

When Robin talks to the locals she hears that to the people in the medina it seemed as if a train was passing by them. “People fell to their knees to pray and many people, including in our apartment complex, decided to spend the night outside. Everyone was afraid of aftershocks.”

The couple goes into the medina today. “We met people on the tour, they are safe, but all their belongings are under the rubble and they have no money,” she explains. “When I look at the medina from our apartment complex, I see that there are cracks in the walls and parts have crumbled.”

The couple had planned to travel to Agadir tomorrow, but those plans are now uncertain. “It feels strange to be on holiday now. We’ll have to see what we do, but for today we’ll keep a low profile.”

Fear of aftershocks

Raja Alouani from Haarlem is exhausted when we speak to her. “I haven’t even washed my face yet, I’ve been busy with family and friends for hours,” she tells NH. The messages are pouring in from all sides and her Moroccan family and friends are panicking: is everyone doing well?

Raja’s cousins ​​live in Beni Mellal, about 160 kilometers south of Marrakech, also an area affected by the earthquake. She was ‘terrified’ when she heard the news about the disaster.

“My cousins ​​said that everyone was on the street. A cousin was sick and could not easily go outside. Despite the fear of aftershocks, she had to stay inside while her husband and son stood outside. Everyone was very afraid that something was going to happen to the house. .”

Fortunately for Raja, her family and friends were unharmed. According to her, earthquakes in this region are ‘unusual’. “Earthquakes happen more often in the north and the last one was very devastating. It’s bizarre to see what an earthquake can do in just a few seconds.”

Cries for help

According to her, the cries for help that she sees on social media and through acquaintances mainly come from the villages in the Marrakech area. Raja: “Those houses are not strongly built and the people are not very well off. They are crying out for help from the government. From the images I see, it is not as violent as, for example, the earthquake in Turkey, but I hope that a national fundraising campaign is being organized.”