Calls related to the earthquake fall by 40% in Granada while the count of properties at red level rises from 14 to 43

Calls from neighbors to the Local Police and Firefighters over the seismic swarm fell by almost 40% over the weekend, according to data published by the City Council this Monday. That same day, however, the Andalusian Regional Government increased from 14 to 43 the number of buildings that cannot be inhabited after the earthquakes, after almost doubling the number of inspections.

The swarm began at 1:04 on August 15 with a magnitude 4.8 quake and an epicenter northeast of Alhendín, south of the capital. On the 18th, new earthquakes above magnitude 4 were recorded. And since then the ground has not stopped moving: the National Geographic Institute (IGN) now counts 1,075 earthquakes in the episode, 94 of them felt by the population. Andalusia remains in the emergency phase, operational situation 1, under the Seismic Risk Plan.

That is why the City Council highlighted this Monday the comparison it posted on its official account: an average of just over 315 alerts during the weekend compared with more than 500 on Friday, which it describes as «a turning point in the management of the quake».

Fourteen buildings on Wednesday, 43 this Monday

The other figure begins five days earlier. On August 19, the Ministry of the Presidency, Health and Emergencies reported that municipal technicians and the Volunteer Architects in Emergencies Group (GAVE) had inspected 580 buildings in seven municipalities: 459 green, 79.1%, with no damage; 105 yellow for minor damage; and 14 red.

First Vice President Antonio Sanz explained that day what that last category means. Red, he said, «does not necessarily mean there is a risk of collapse, but rather that the building requires attention and must not be occupied until the measures indicated by the technicians have been taken». No building has received the black classification, which would require demolition.

This Monday, the Minister of Housing, Youth and Territorial Planning, Rocío Díaz, updated the balance: 976 inspections, 705 green —more than 72%—, 217 yellow and 43 red. In other words, the uninhabitable buildings have tripled and those with minor damage have more than doubled. In addition, the proportion of those that come out clean from the review has fallen by about seven points as the number of inspections approached a thousand.

The last tremor to reach 3

Why, then, are calls falling if damage is still appearing? The IGN public catalog offers a clue. The last earthquake in the series to reach magnitude 3 was recorded on August 20 at 02:15 peninsular time, with a magnitude of 3.4 east of Alhendín. More than four days have passed since then without any movement again reaching that level.

What has not stopped, however, is the trickle. Early this morning, three felt tremors were recorded: magnitude 1.9 west of Ogíjares at 07:23, magnitude 1.8 southwest of Gójar at 05:27, and magnitude 1.6 southwest of Ogíjares at 04:36. None is more than a scare. But all three appear as «felt» in the official record.

So both counts are compatible: what has fallen is the strength of the tremors, not their number. The emergency phone 1-1-2 had handled 5,562 calls from the province by noon on August 19.

Aid without a figure and 53 beds

There are still, moreover, people who have not returned home. Díaz checked this Monday at the Inturjoven shelter in the capital, where she visited the evacuated neighbors together with the mayor of Las Gabias, Merinda Sadaba, and announced that the Regional Government will provide aid for those affected. The Andalusian Government, according to the Ministry, is still working to determine the mechanism through which it will channel this aid and needs to know the extent of the damage before setting the amounts. No figure, no deadline, no call: only the commitment that the regional executive «will also be there in the recovery».

That shelter is housing 53 people: 27 neighbors from Las Gabias and 26 from the Zaidín neighborhood. And in Las Gabias, one of the hardest-hit municipalities, six blocks with 371 homes were evacuated as a preventive measure.

The damage, however, already has an initial bill. The Insurance Compensation Consortium has received 12,531 compensation claims from 74 municipalities in Granada, 6,086 of them from the capital, with a provisional cost exceeding 35 million euros, according to data from the body released on Saturday by the Granada Insurance Mediators Association. More than 93% correspond to homes and homeowners' associations.

It is still unknown, for now, when the neighbors in the red-flagged buildings will be able to return home. Meanwhile, the Andalusian Emergency Agency keeps open the free phone line 900 102 513, staffed together with the Official Association of Psychologists of Eastern Andalusia, for those who are still shaken by the scare.