1988: 50k dead, 2007: 3k-5k still homeless

December 6, 2007 10:57 PM

19th Anniversary of Spitak Earthquake At 11:41am on December 7, 1988, a 7 point scale earthquake shook the Soviet Republic of Armenia. A massive Soviet-wide aid campaign began. Aid workers from outside of the Soviet Union were allowed in, for the first time in Soviet history. Many argue that the 50,000+ deaths were in part due to poor construction of the Soviet era buildings. Any hope for reconstruction fell apart with the collapse of the Soviet Union though. 19 years later, many people are still living in "temporary" housing, called "Domiks" , estimates are around 3000-5000 people still homeless after 19 years. A child of the earthquake remembers. ABC News coverage and Time Magazine coverage.
posted by k8t (5 comments total)

Wow. I don't even remember hearing about this. It's terrible that some people there feel that they have no choice but to live in a building that continues to collapse. There's no way I could sleep at night in a place like that, especially if I had children.
posted by meringue at 11:45 PM on December 6, 2007

I lived in Armenia at the time of this earthquake. Even though I was in Yerevan, some 100 miles from the epicenter, the shaking was pretty scary. Being 9 at the time and having never experienced an earthquake I was quite confused by what was happening. I was in my room, getting ready for school, when things went crazy. For some reason what made the biggest impression on me was the sound of the kitchen table banging against the wall. I ran into the kitchen and said "mom, what are you doing?" Not wasting a moment to laugh at my naivete, she grabbed me and took me to a door frame, where we waited for the shaking to stop.

Of course, later learning just how devastating this earthquake had been for the country made that silly story much more memorable than it would have been otherwise.
posted by epimorph at 12:10 AM on December 7, 2007

Nice post—I remember the quake but had no idea so many people were still homeless.

Thanks for the reminiscence, epimorph!
posted by languagehat at 6:45 AM on December 7, 2007

great post k8t. too bad so many people seem to have missed it.
posted by killy willy at 10:18 AM on December 8, 2007

also, a good cautionary tale about dealing with temporary housing after disasters. *cough*Katrina*cough*
posted by killy willy at 10:20 AM on December 8, 2007