Report: 1 million homes at risk of collapse due to earthquake

Kan public radio reported that about one million homes in Israel are at risk of collapsing in the event of an earthquake.

The report comes after two minor earthquakes shook northern Israel earlier this week, 12 hours apart.

The first quake, measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, occurred late on Saturday, while the other quake with a magnitude of 3.5 was felt at noon the following day.

The epicenter of the first quake was 19 kilometers (11 miles) northwest of the town of Beit She’an, according to the Israeli geological survey, and the second was 16 kilometers (10 miles) southeast of the city of Tiberias.

There were no reports of casualties or serious damage in either case, but IDF Home Front Command engineers have been assigned to help the Tiberias municipality survey 60 buildings that residents say were damaged by the earthquakes.

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A senior official in the Home Front Command described the event as “disturbing”.

Cracks appeared in a building in Tiberias following an earthquake on January 23, 2022, which led to the evacuation of residents. (screenshot: Twitter)

At this point, Home Front Command officials and geologists aren’t sure whether the earthquakes were an isolated incident or a precursor to a stronger event.

According to data provided by Kan Sunday, about 60 percent of homes in Israel are still not protected from rocket attacks, earthquakes, or collapse due to obsolescence. More than half of Israeli citizens live in a building that is not adequately protected from such events.

Israel lies along an active fault line: the Syrian-African Fault, a crack in the Earth’s crust that runs along the border separating Israel and Jordan. The last major earthquake to hit the region was in 1927 – a 6.2-magnitude tremor that killed 500 people and injured 700 – and seismologists estimate that such earthquakes occur in this area about every 100 years.

According to Kahn, a major earthquake is expected to cause about 7 thousand deaths and 145 thousand injuries, the displacement of 170 thousand people and the destruction of 320,000 buildings.

In response, in 2005 the government approved TAMA Plan 38 – an urban initiative designed to encourage tenants to enhance their building structures.

However, it takes a minimum of three years to get approval for TAMA Building 38, with the waiting period rising to nearly five years in more densely populated parts of the country such as the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.

According to Kahn, since 2005, only 27,000 buildings have been strengthened under the plan.

Damage to homes in the northern Israeli city of Tiberias after earthquakes rocked the area, July 9, 2018 (David Cohen/Flash90)

Channel 12 news reported, Sunday, that based on maps of local authorities, the cities most at risk of earthquake are Kiryat Shmona, Safed, Tiberias, Hatzor Haglilit, Migdal HaEmek, Afula, Katzrin, Rosh Pina, Beit She’an and Eilat.

In all, about 80,000 buildings in those cities are classified as “high risk,” and all were built before 1982. According to Channel 12, a strong earthquake can cause severe damage to about 35% of them—about 28,600 buildings.

The news channel also quoted a government report as saying that at least 2 billion shekels is needed to strengthen the structures, but so far only 70 million shekels have been allocated.

In addition to the potential damage to residential buildings, officials are concerned about the damage the earthquake could cause to national infrastructure.

Kan reported that Mekorot – the Israeli national water company – has in recent days halted routine maintenance work on the Israeli national water tanker due to safety concerns for the workers, whose work is mostly done underground.

The sources also expressed fears that a serious earthquake could cut off water supplies to the Beit She’an area and the neighboring Emek Hamayanot Regional Council.

In 2018, the state ombudsman warned that Israel was not at all prepared for a major earthquake.

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