‘Big bang and whole house shuddered’: Earthquake rocks western France
The quake, which had a magnitude of up to 5.8, was unusually powerful for mainland France
Around 170 people were forced to leave their homes after an earthquake measuring between 5.3 and 5.8 on the Richter scale rocked a large part of western France on Friday (June 16) afternoon.
The village of La Laigne, halfway between Niort in Deux-Sèvres and La Rochelle in Charente-Maritime was closest to the centre of the quake and suffered the most damage.
Christophe Béchu, France’s minister of ecologic transition and local government, was due to visit the village on Monday (June 19).
No one was badly hurt but some residents, who fled from their homes in light summer clothes, were told by firemen and disaster workers that their properties were too dangerous for them to even go inside to pack an emergency suitcase.
Read more: MAP: 4,000 earthquakes a year in France; where, and what risk level?
Walls of barns and other buildings partially collapsed into the street.
Both the school and the church were shut in La Laigne because of structural damage and there is a risk that the church bell tower will collapse.
The government said it will use a new, accelerated declaration of a catastrophe naturelle for affected communes, unlocking the way for specific insurance claims to be made.
Insurance companies will be able to draw on a fund to which they all contribute, and which also gets government payments.
‘There was a big bang’
Connexion reader Paul Storey, who lives in the nearby town of Surgères was in the house when the quake struck.
“There was a big bang and the whole house shuddered,” he said.
“Some of our bits of glass fell and shattered on the floor. I really thought the windows had broken but it was just the falling glass. Of course, it was entirely unexpected and a bit of a shock, but apart from the broken glass we are OK.”
Residents of La Laigne told Le Monde newspaper that the village was now a “ghost town”, with many people staying with family or friends while they assess the damage and start the process of making insurance claims.
Building surveyors and firemen moved from house to house in the region to judge if the houses were safe for people to live in or not, and the Gendarmerie organised patrols to protect the empty homes.
In some cases, chimneys were knocked down by the firemen to prevent them from falling later.
Firemen also climbed with tarpaulins onto roofs to cover holes where tiles had fallen, with the area at risk of thunderstorms for the rest of the week.
The damage in the village was the main news on France’s two main TV channels TF1 and France 2.
A Connexion reader said she felt the earthquake around 150 km away in the Dordogne."We were having our apéro around 18.40 and the house shook as if a huge lorry had gone by," said M.N. "We are about 300m from the main road so not that. The water in our glasses moved as did the wine, both were on the table at the time. We sat and waited to see if there was another but nothing else. Fortunately no damage as too far away around 93 miles from us."Experts say the earthquake originated in a known fault line, starting near the quake centre which runs north.
It follows the direction of an old mountain range, which existed around 300 million years ago.
The last major quake in the region was also due to the old mountain range fault line and hit the Ile’de Oléron in 1972.
Have your say
How close were you to Friday's earthquake? Did you feel it or were you directly affected? Let us know via news@connexionfrance.com.
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