After the earthquake

Our journey takes us through many differing landscapes, communities and cultures. The majority of these experiences are positive and we derive great joy from encountering new people, environments, food and traditions. Sometimes, however, we are faced with more difficult situations and here in Morocco we have recently seen the after effects of the Al Haouz earthquake, which occurred on the 8th September 2023. With quite a substantial language barrier, we have not felt that we have delved deeply into the short and long term impacts of the earthquake, so what follows is our thoughts and experience based on what we have seen, what we have learnt from local people, and on reading up a small amount afterwards. The Wikipedia article on this particular earthquake seems to be pretty comprehensive and is referenced, so I have referred to it for some of the background.

As way of an introduction, the earthquake epicentre was in the Atlas Mountains, about 70km from Marrakesh, and occurred at around 11pm. Nearly 3,000 people died, around 5000 were injured, and tens of thousands of homes were damaged.

We first saw evidence of the earthquake—although at this point we didn’t know what it was—on the slopes of the mountains near the village of Tamessoulte where there were lots of destroyed buildings. I had just assumed that the older buildings had been abandoned for newer ones.

After the mountains we descended into the town of Asni through an absolutely stunning landscape. There we found out about the earthquake just in passing. As I was looking for a bank to withdraw some Dirham, one of the Google reviews included a note that the bank’s location had moved following the 2023 earthquake. It piqued my interest and I started to read more. In Asni we also met Ahmed who helped us out in a cafe and chatted with us, including about the earthquake in which he said he had injured his leg. We had also noticed an unusual-looking area in the centre of Asni, which was empty and didn’t appear to quite fit in. Further reading revealed that 90% of the houses in Asni were destroyed and the area we had observed was particularly badly hit.

Over the next five or six days, evidence of the earthquake was all around us and a stark reminder of the tragedy that still remains in this area.

As we left Asni, we climbed up to Imlil below Mount Toubkal, where many buildings were damaged in the disaster. There was less evidence of damaged and abandoned houses here, with reports suggesting the damage sustained was less than in nearby Asni. Imlil is a busy tourist destination, as the most popular point from which to climb Mount Toubkal, north Africa’s tallest mountain.

Imlil also suffered another disaster on the 17th August 1995 when the town was catastrophically flooded and up to 150 people, including local residents and tourists, died. A huge amount of rainfall fell and the steep sided mountains forced water and debris straight into the town. For such a stunning location on the edge of the national park, it has had its fair share of recent trauma.

Up above Imlil, we explored the high mountains and saw extremely remote villages. One of the difficulties of the recovery is that some of the houses and villages can only be accessed by rough, steep and narrow roads. Initial emergency access was difficult because landslides blocked roads.

Before we left Imlil, I took a photo of the football pitch which was on the main car park at the bottom of the village (more about those football pitches soon!). Recently I have been geolocating some of the photos where the phone/camera automatic locator malfunctioned and found the car park/football pitch on Google satellite maps with evidence of tents and temporary structures which, based on the Google Earth timestamp (19/09/2023), would've been erected to house local people after the earthquake.

I also found the same thing at Ouirgane before the climb up Tizi n’Test. Across this whole area tents and temporary structures can be seen in almost every village.

From Ouirgane, the whole climb of 70km was a near endless reminder, and it was difficult to stomach. Immediately the road was covered in debris from landslides that blocked sections of the road. Aside from the landslides in the immediate aftermath, the area has become destabilised by the earthquake and it is now more susceptible to further landslides.

Buildings were ruined and destroyed.

Others had huge cracks in them.

In rural areas, traditional buildings tended to be made from wood, mud bricks and other natural materials. There have been suggestions that these natural materials, as opposed to concrete or newer block materials, collapsed without leaving air pockets essential for the survival of trapped victims. In the town of Ijoukak where we stopped for tea, more than 200 houses were destroyed and around half the population died. Buildings were tumbledown and crumbling all around us and the cafe owner explained that three women had lived in the ruin opposite us.

We cycled past temporary accommodation and mosques which were still in use about two and a half years after the earthquake. It was difficult to imagine what it would be like here in the depths of winter during cold and snowy periods.

After our overnight stay in the auberge at the top of Tizi n’Test we stopped for breakfast at the Sunset Restaurant (best omelette of the tour so far!). Chatting with Ibrahim we learnt that because his hotel was a business he had not received much help from the Government. He did however see the development and improvement of the road as a good thing to enable access to the mountains. It was difficult to see how he and his family would be able to rebuild but they seemed very determined to do so. You could see why. Theirs was a remarkable spot.

Further down the descent to Taroudant, we could see new houses being built in the villages but there has been criticism about how many houses have been replaced and only a few days ago an article was published about the delays in restoration and the Government response.

Upon leaving the mountains, the signs of this natural disaster were few and far between but the memories of the juxtaposition of such a beautiful landscape and the difficulties of life here after such a terrible disaster will remain with us.