"The impressive thing is the panic, the panic of people for not knowing what to do." "It was very intense, very short, but very intense, we saw how the buildings collapsed and rubble fell."
This is how the people from Lanzarote who were in Marrakech during the earthquake and who are fortunately well describe the situation. They are Isabel Betancort, experience director of the Centers and Reinero Brandon, Environment coordinator, both were in Morocco at a World Congress
"We are at an international Geopark Congress and we suffered the earthquake live, it was quite intense and very short because it only lasted about six seconds, but it was very intense, very powerful and it caught us fortunately walking down the street in an open area near a park," Reinero Brandon explains to La Voz. "We saw buildings collapsing and rubble falling but really the hardest part is not in the center of Marrakech, but in the surrounding rural areas where there are adobe buildings, very unstable and they are the ones that have suffered much more damage. Brandon adds.
For her part, Isabel Betancort relates that "the impressive thing is the panic of people for not knowing what to do, if their relatives were okay or not, then everything has returned a little more to normal and we are luckily returning tomorrow with Binter Canarias and the most we want is to return home as soon as possible." "We slept in a park, Moroccan families left us blankets, all of Marrakech was in the street to avoid entering the buildings, because the situation was quite complicated at first since until the aftershocks were ruled out people stayed in the street, already around 5 in the morning people began to return to their homes."
As the hours have passed, the situation is calmer, "the airport is operating normally but there is a bit of chaos because everyone wants to leave here."
From the Cabildo of Lanzarote, the president, Oswaldo Betancort has contacted them to know their status and the pertinent actions have been taken to organize their return to the island.
