The 6.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Morocco a few days ago caused a lot of loss of life and property damage in Marrakech and especially in villages in the Atlas Mountains in the south.
The stronger, closer, and shallower the earthquake, the greater the damage expected.
Another critical factor that affects the extent of damage is the quality of construction.
Construction in Morocco is often of low quality: buildings lack proper foundations, are made of blocks and lack reinforcements.
Therefore, the damage caused is quite large, even though the Atlas Mountains are not very densely populated.
The death toll may reach several thousand.
This is a timely reminder that an earthquake in Israel is not a question of if, but when, and the picture in Israel is similar in some ways to what happened in Morocco.
The epicenters of the expected tremors along the Dead Sea fault are near population centers.
Earthquakes of the magnitude of the Moroccan earthquake have occurred several times in Israel, and several buildings in Israel were built before an appropriate construction standard existed (since the 1980s).
Although the people and governments of Israel have known this for generations, the preparation of the State of Israel is very poor.
The Office of State Management has published repeated reports on the issue and the Government has not responded to them.
The three most critical and urgent action items are the strengthening of buildings, especially public ones (for example, schools and hospitals); educating the population on how to prepare and how to act in case of an earthquake; and above all, establish in the State of Israel a body with the responsibility, authority and significant budgets to manage the state’s preparations for the expected earthquake, manage the organization and rescue operations when the earthquake occurs, and rebuilding the country in weeks. , months and years that followed.
There is no such body in the country and one should be established immediately.
