Stathis Abatielos

1953 - It was the 9th August, the first earthquake which happened on a Sunday morning at about 9 or 10 o'clock. It wasn't very big here in Argostoli, it did some damage in the houses, but not very serious. It was stronger in other parts of the islands. It scared us a lot.

Q: Was that the biggest earthquake that you had experienced in your life?

Yes, we didn't have any earthquakes so big before, that was the biggest. And I don't think there were any casualties - except some small damage to the houses, nothing else. OK we got scared, we got afraid, we got everything like that but we couldn't think that something more was going to happen.

Q: How old were you then?

Seventeen. The second one happened on Tuesday, the 11th. It was about 6 o'clock in the morning. The epicentre of the earthquake was near Sami and there it did a lot of damage and a lot of casualties because it was in the morning and people were sleeping in the houses. Again, in Argostoli it wasn't very severe. It did a lot of damage in the houses.

I remember, when the earthquake started, my bedroom was overlooking the harbour and I remember the wall opening, a crack in the wall opening and making me able to see the light outside. I was sleeping in the same room with my sister. The first thing we did, as we were taught to do, was to go under the bed or under the door frame. I remember I ran there and my sister couldn't make it and my mother was running and shouting 'where are you?' and trying to find us, it was dark.

When the earthquake stopped and we were a little bit around, we tried to find each other and see if we were OK, the house was full of plaster, and many things fell down from the walls and were broken. That was when we decided to go out of the house and not stay any more. I remember we slept outside that night, it was summer, it was very hot.

There were some French people they had camped on the top of the hill and because my father was the Consulate for France they took us in their tents and we slept there and all night we could hear the earth trembling, every minute, it was a big noise, a big noise and everybody was afraid, everybody was expecting that something would happen. You get this feeling that you are not standing well, you get the feeling that the earth is going to sink. Anyway we went all through that.

Next morning we started being more daring, we decided to go in the house and get some clothes and some things. I said to my mother that I had to go and see my friend who lived in Makris Gialos and we said right, at noon we'll meet at the square.

I went down to see my friend, he wasn't there. I talked with his mother and we said about the earthquakes. Oh yes, and I remember before going down there I went to the place where the boy scouts gathered, to see some other friends. And there, there was a policeman and we wanted to take us, as volunteers, to Sami, to help people. So when we saw him and he said that, we all disappeared!

So, I ran to Makris Gialos, my friend was not there I spoke with his mother for a while - I said 'OK' it was approaching noontime, 'I have to go and I'll see him later'. So on my way back, before I reached the top of the hill the earthquake happened.

It was so strong that I could not stand on the street. I heard some rocks falling down from the top, so I jumped over the road and I grabbed an olive tree, which was beating on me, and, if I remember correctly they said that the earthquake lasted about 50 seconds. Then I looked over towards Lixouri and I saw a cloud of dust, a white cloud coming up. Then I felt, almost at the same time, that dust rising all around me and making me unable to breathe. I thought I was going to suffocate for two or three minutes.

Eventually, when everything settled down a bit, I climbed back up on the road and started going down - when I was on the top I saw Argostoli, everything was ruins. Lassi Street was more or less like it is now - it was full of stones and posts from the electricity cables; you could hardly walk on the street, you had to jump over stones and people were running, people were shouting and it was a horrible feeling.

I kept running and that street led me to the square, where my mother and my sister were waiting and when they saw me coming they knelt down and made the sign of the cross and we were safe.

Well, after that people were running all about and trying to help each other. I remember that they tried to communicate with Athens to tell them the situation and they sent a wire and they said that we are sinking. I remember that in the afternoon some planes came to take some photographs so that the cabinet could meet and decide if we needed any help!

The next morning, Wednesday morning, we saw some ships coming; British ships and Israeli ships came and the crews came out, they brought some food and they brought water, they tried to help if anyone was buried under the houses.

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Q: Were there many people hurt in Argostoli?

In Argostoli? There were not so many casualties in Argostoli, there were dead people but I don't know the exact number. Over the three islands, Kefalonia, Zakynthos and Ithaki there were about 950. Most of them were at the second earthquake at Sami, when they were asleep and some people were killed in Zakynthos because the earthquake was not so strong in Zakynthos as it was in Argostoli, the third one I mean, so the people were more daring so they went to the houses and as it was near noon time they started cooking. They were cooking with gas and when the earthquake happened the whole town was burnt.

The next day, there was a ship in the harbour, which decided eventually to go. We managed to go there with a friend of mine who had a boat and took us there and I left with my sister. I don't know anything after that.

My mother and my grandmother stayed - my father was not here, he was in another part of Greece, so we left and I never came back. We found a house in Athens which we rented and I stayed there with my sister and after a month or so my father came back to Argostoli to pick up my mother and my grandmother. They saved whatever they could save from the house. The house was eventually destroyed. They put some dynamite under it to bring it down, like they did to most of the houses.

But the feelings from living through this earthquake, from the tremors, not big ones but small ones, this noise makes you feel helpless, you feel that you are nothing - you say now well, if I fall in the sea I can swim, but if you feel the earth not being stable under your feet, you feel all these things, you get the impression that everything's going to ... you might sink. You don't accept this thing, that the earth, which is supposed to be stable, solid, is moving like that.

I had heard there are caves far inside the earth and rocks that fell down make all this vibration. I heard that, and then when I was feeling the earthquake and all this noise and all these things, I had in my imagination that something is falling down, you could feel it.

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Q: What do you feel now when there is an earthquake?

I had the same experience. It was in 1981 I think, we had an earthquake in Athens, and I remember I had the feeling either to go under a door or open a window because the building where our flat is was surrounded by pine trees and I thought to myself that the best thing to save myself was to open the window and fall on the pine trees.

For you, you think 'there's a tremor' nothing else, you stay put until it finishes, well, the first thing that comes in my mind is to run away. If I can run away from the house then I will do it as fast as I can.

They tell us now though with the way the houses are built, the safest place is in the house under a door frame or by a pillar.