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“It is the duty of the state to be next to the island, to disburse the relevant compensation as soon as possible, so that Samos can regain its normal rhythms as soon as possible,” said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Samos, where he was on Saturday afternoon. . and visited the areas affected by the great earthquake.
Upon his arrival on the island, Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a private meeting with the parents of the children who lost their lives yesterday, expressing his deep regret and sincere condolences for the tragic event. Then, during his visit to Vathi, he passed by the place where they lost their lives and left a flower.
“I am here today, 23 hours after the great earthquake, to have a personal view of the magnitude of the damage. From the first moment a government unit has arrived in Samos that records the damage at the household level, at the company level and at the level of public infrastructure, “stressed the Prime Minister, adding:” The state mechanism has gained much more experience in being able to register losses and disbursements much faster than in the past. This will happen even now in Samos. “
Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired a meeting in which the Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias, the Deputy Minister of the Interior Theodoros Libanios, the Secretary General of Infrastructure George Karagiannis, the Secretary General of Reception of Asylum Seekers Eugeros Perimeros Moutzouris, the Regional Governor of Attica participated and First Vice President of the Union of Regions of Greece (ENPE) George Patoulis, the Regional Vice Governor of Samos Vassilis Panourakis, the Mayor of Eastern Samos George Stantzos, the deputy of ND Christosfouros Paradikis and De Ingeniería Costas Synolakis.
During the meeting, the actors expressed their satisfaction with the immediate mobilization of the state mechanism and discussed the damage caused to infrastructure and businesses by both the earthquake and the tsunami. Reference was also made to the issue of refugees: immigrants and measures to cope with the pandemic. “I promised to protect the country’s borders. We have done it, you know very well how much the flows have been reduced,” the Prime Minister stressed at the meeting, speaking of the refugee-immigrant.
Immediately afterwards, Kyriakos Mitsotakis met and thanked the personnel from the rescue teams and the army, as well as the volunteers who are collecting applications for the damage record. He then visited Vathi to see the damage to buildings and businesses up close. He spoke with citizens and spoke with businessmen on the island who were damaged by the tsunami.
The bells of the Panagia Theotokou church will ring again
After Vathi, the Prime Minister visited Karlovasi, where he saw the damage to the Panagia Theotokou church up close and undertook to restore the church. “I will take care of this emblematic church – in consultation with the special engineers and the Ministry of Culture – to restore it, so that the bells ring again, because it deserves and deserves throughout the history of this beautiful place,” he said.
Migratory flows have been reduced to an absolute minimum
In Karlovasi, Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with the Mayor of Western Samos, Alexandros Lymperis, who thanked him for the “really immediate response” and discussed the problems created by the earthquake. “I want to say publicly that immigration in its day has found a solution,” Mr. Liberis told the prime minister, among other things, and then raised the issue of strengthening the University of the Aegean.
“Thank you, Mayor, for what you said about immigration,” the Prime Minister replied, noting: “We have received an extremely difficult situation, you know, we have reduced the flows to the absolute minimum and at the same time we are working in consultation with all the local agencies to create … as we have committed ourselves – a modern structure in Samos to finally close Vathi, which is also a personal commitment of mine. ”
Regarding restoration projects, Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that within the framework of the “Antonis Tritsis” program of the Ministry of the Interior, priority will be given to Municipalities that have been affected by major natural disasters. Finally, speaking of the University of the Aegean, he said that it has very good evaluations and that the State will take care of the problems of the buildings that have been damaged.
The entire statement of the Prime Minister in Vathi of Samos
Let me first express once again my grief at the loss of two young children. All of Greece today mourns this tragic event and our thoughts are with their families and may God give them strength to overcome this unbearable pain.
I’m here today, 23 hours after the great earthquake, to get a personal view of the extent of the damage. As you know, from the first moment a government unit has arrived in Samos that records losses at the household level, at the company level and at the public infrastructure level.
Clearly, significant damage has occurred, but given the magnitude of the earthquake and its unique characteristics, things certainly could have been much worse.
It is the duty of the State, as it always does, to be next to the island, to disburse the relevant compensation as soon as possible, so that Samos recovers its normal rhythms as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, through a series of natural disasters, most recently that of the great catastrophe that struck Thessaly and especially Larissa, the state apparatus has now gained much more experience in the ability to record losses and disburse funds much more quickly. than what was done in the past. This will happen now on Samos.
I would also like to thank everyone who was on the front lines, as they always do after any natural disaster, not just local government officials, our rescuers, firefighters, EKAB, EMAK, who are always mobilizing when we we face such phenomena.
Finally, I would like to say that I am pleased that 112 was operating at high speed, sending a tsunami warning in less than 10 minutes – which was not the case, it was a reality – something that we saw and here in Samos and in fact we have damage several companies for this wave, but fortunately there is no loss of human life.
Let me say it again, we are a seismogenic country, this is not the last great earthquake to happen in Greece, we know it and we owe it to ourselves at the level of civil protection to have all these means at our disposal so that we can as much as possible – and in In the event of a tsunami, there is – to warn citizens to take all protective measures. But more information is needed on how citizens should react in these cases.
Finally, let me close where I started. Two young children lost their lives because a wall of an uninhabited building collapsed, which could have fallen in an earthquake much smaller than that. I think we have a debt as a State and as a local government to see this problem again. This is a topic that experts point out to us very often. We know that the new buildings that are being built can withstand earthquakes and are much larger than the one we lived in yesterday. However, this does not apply to old uninhabited buildings that present a high degree of danger. This is also a problem from the past that we inherited, we will bow on this problem and face it. I think this is the least we can do to honor the memory of these two young children.
