Attendees at a wedding in the church of the Virgin of the Anguishes of Granada noticed the first earthquake movement after 6 p.m. on Friday, in the middle of the ceremony. The incident prompted some sarcastic comments from the priest officiating the mass, but little else. The church had shaken noticeably for all the guests, but in Granada small tremors are relatively frequent and the religious event continued without major problems, Antonio, one of the attendees, explains to EL MUNDO.
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The ground in Granada continued moving hours later and many residents took to the streets for fear of being trapped in their apartments, especially those living in taller buildings. The night has been long throughout the province and in some towns like Armilla, spaces have even been set up to accommodate all those who did not want to return to their homes. In addition to the tremors, heavy storms have also made an appearance to add more drama to the atmosphere.
“After the eclipse, this is starting to look a lot like the end of the world,” says Francisco, a resident of Huétor Vega, laughing. In this municipality, thousands of residents were at the fairgrounds during the San Roque festivities when the strongest tremor occurred, after one a.m. on Saturday. The power went out for a few minutes and people hurriedly left the venue. Afterwards, the aftershocks have continued and around 9 a.m. another tremor was felt. In total, more than 40 movements have been detected in this area since Friday afternoon.
The mayor of Las Gabias, María Merinda Sádaba, was also alerted when the whole house started to move. She immediately contacted the Local Police and went out to the street along with municipal technicians and Civil Protection to reassure residents and respond to all the reports that were coming in. The cracks that appeared in some buildings affect some ornamental elements or cornices, but after inspections carried out throughout the morning, structural damage has been ruled out in any building and, little by little, residents have been returning to their homes.
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“The people of Granada are used to tremors but this has been the strongest I remember,” says the mayor in conversation with EL MUNDO. “Recent news from Venezuela and Colombia with large magnitude earthquakes and catastrophic damage also weigh on the spirits of the residents,” she explains. But the seismic activity characteristic of Granada and its surroundings is of lesser intensity and impact. Everyone has recalled in recent hours the seismic swarm that Granada experienced in 2021, with constant movements that caused alarm and also sent thousands of people to the streets for fear that buildings would suffer damage. “The initial scare and shock cannot be avoided,” adds the mayor.
In Granada city, the experience has been very different depending on the type of housing. Elena lives on the eighth floor of an apartment block on Licenciado Vidrieras street, near Cervantes Avenue, and was awakened by a strong shake that knocked objects off several shelves. Her two young children did not wake up and she did not feel the need to go outside. But she did see many neighbors on the sidewalks for fear of new aftershocks. During the morning, her husband went to bail water out of a nearby house under construction where rain had entered through an open terrace. The downpour that began after the earthquake, in the early hours, is also causing flooding problems in several municipalities in the province: “This day is going to be very long,” says Elena, amazed and resigned by the accumulation of natural phenomena that have given the Virgin’s Festivity an almost apocalyptic touch.
Miguel Ángel lives in a three-story detached house in the Albaicín, at the foot of the Alhambra. He had just arrived in Granada on Friday after spending a few days in Segovia, where he watched the solar eclipse on Wednesday. Last night he felt the ground move. “I felt as if I were inside a ship. Everything was moving around us. It lasted a few seconds but they feel long.” He has also had to bail water out of his house’s patio because the rain fell heavily: “We already experienced something similar during the covid months, with the wave of earthquakes in 2021. We are very used to it. But this has been the strongest I remember,” he says.
