Earthquake
activity in June: Deaths and serious damage follow quiet
months as 6.5 Richter 'quake - the worst in 10 years in Greece, kills, injures
and damages buildings**. There were several other reported earthquakes in
June.
08 Jun: 6.5
Richter Scale, 3.25pm. Epicentre in Andravida,
western Achaia, 60 Km south-west of Patra.
**
Link
to Story.
12 Jun 5.5
Richter Scale, --.-- --. Epicentre in Zakros, eastern
Crete.
(item 1)
Link
to Story.
18 Jun 5.5 Richter Scale, 05.00am. Undersea epicentre off
the
island of Karpathos.
18 Jun 4.6 Richter Scale, 10.00am. Undersea epicentre
off
the
island off eastern coast.
(item 1)
Link
to Story.
Triple Quakes:-
21 Jun 5.9
Richter Scale, 2.30pm. Undersea epicenter off south
of Methoni,
Southern Peloponnese.
5.4 Richter Scale, 08.07am.
5.0 Richter Scale, 4.45pm.
(item 1)
Link
to Story.
25 Jun 5.0 Richter Scale, 11.59pm. Epicentre at Karmena Voula,
120Km
north of Athens.
(Last item)
Link
to Story.
**Earthquakes are a common feature of life in Greece and it is unusual for
deaths, injuries and or damage to buildings to occur.
Recent comment has centered upon reassuring that whilst another Athens
(1999) 'quake is unlikely (Link),
a Tsunami caused by a 'quake occurs every 136 years
Link
to story.
However, scientists have recently suggested that Greece should assess it's
Tsunami readiness
Link
to story. A Tsunami warning system is estimated to be ready by 2011
Link
to story.
States in the Balkan region are now cooperating in sharing information. Link
To Story.
There are certain existing buildings considered to be at risk from major
earthquakes. Link
to story. These buildings, which include a number of schools, are being
investigated with the objective of safety. Link
to story. Engineers are also calling upon the government to institute
checks on old bridges in Greece.
Link (Item6.)
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A Little Extra News.... 24/7 again at Daskala Yiannis Airport.
Summer is now undoubtedly upon us here in Crete. The holiday charters arrive
at Chania's Daskala Yiannis Airport at the base of the Akrotiri peninsula, only a
short drive from the city and again on a summer season 24 hour/7day operating
basis.
The taxi rank has to be seen to be believed - sometimes three deep around a
central pier maybe 50 or more yards in length. Single file at the front, two
deep at the rear, whilst the local car hire firms seem to be doing very well,
judging by the company stickers on arriving and departing vehicles. All
the activity happening around the arriving/departing local flights from places
like Athens and Thessaloniki - or some of the other Greek islands, including
Cyprus.
Almost all Europe seems to be represented - both eastern and western - we have
even noted a Russian 747 sat on the apron! For anyone who remembers the old
terminal (now reverted to its original role on what is a Greek Air Force base)
the change is extreme. No more having to wait in queues in the blazing sunshine
and impossible heat, herded into rows by over-their-authority travel company
rep's because there was simply no room for everyone inside for the numbers
departing! My wife and I were once accosted by an English rep' who more or less
demanded, because she overheard us talking about going to the Taverna outside
the airport, that we should 'not to wander away now', because she felt that we
might get left behind!! Since we were not going anywhere, that was exactly
our intention.
On another occasion, when another English rep' asked which flight I was waiting
for (I wasn't even wearing shorts or a straw hat or an 'I did Samaria' T-shirt),
I became a temporary celebrity among the listening Greek taxi drivers when I
replied, 'the one to Astratigos'... It was good fun! But maybe they were a
bit worried - armed military guards watched everyone between terminal and
aircraft before modernisation. Maybe they shot left-overs!
Now the air conditioned interior has (for now maybe) enough room for arrivee's
and departer's although the catering capacity has not improved a lot, and there
is an ever growing outside the airport gates Taverna. Good business..
The new twist in the tale is that different nationalities seem to hog different
days. Scandinavians on one day, eastern Europeans on another - Brits on Tuesdays
(practice fighter interception day!), Germans on Wednesdays... I wonder why?....
Cretanvista - Bringing the sunshine, keeping the rain off...
Kalos Ilthate Stin Kriti
WB.
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Site News:
We are now into our fifth month
of a major upgrading of the entire site. There is still some way to go. Our new bird watching page
remains
unavoidably delayed. Changes in Cretan life itself have left some pages
outdated - new houses; hotels; supermarkets; roads and all. Our book reviews are a back-logged, but will be added to again
quite soon. Updates continue, and we do, of course, have some new
content already here, not least this (monthly) page, which is where things usually appear
first!
Photo Galleries...
Wild Flower Gallery
-
Now at 288 different
wild flower photographs - plus another 24 in preparation...
All in early preparation for our book. We
have now added much reference information on redesigned pages
- these are going online right now.
The revisions include more detailed references
on each page - with more photos of each specimen to follow. All the information will remain online
at Cretanvista.
Still free. With the advent of new ipods, Blackberry's and other gizmos - it will
be much easier to take Cretan vista on your field trips.
Calendar Photo Galleries:
A new one every year! 2008
Calendar gallery is complete and online now.. The 2008 calendar
topic finally became 'Wild Flowers of Crete' and the result superb! Sorry,
there are no calendars left..... But we are reprinting the issue with next
year's dates! Link.
Wildlife Gallery - the first two pages -
the first 48 unique photographs,
including some rare specimens of the Cretan fauna. Some of is quite
beautiful, some a bit scary/creepy, but all now add to our wildlife page and
the ornithology gallery pages. Not all sun, sea and sand maybe, but everything
depicted really is here. Always worth checking where you walk or sit!
Start
here.
Chania Photo Gallery.
Our long planned Chania photograph galleries commence with a presentation from
Klaus Dieter Thill, whose photographs of some old buildings in the area of
the Venetian Harbour show a little of what we all sometimes miss. Have a look.
Start here.
Klaus will be adding a little text in the future, but the gallery
itself is online. Do have a look, especially if you are
familiar with Chania - you might just see that which you so far have not!
Miniature Chapels of Crete Gallery.
Klaus-Dieter Thill - author of
Minaturkapellen auf Krista,
a printed photo album detailing some of those enigmatic roadside shrines of
Crete, has now contributed the first page of his Chania on-line gallery. Klaus has supplied photographs for this gallery which is
about to go on-line
here at Cretanvista. Our review of the printed book -
which we have already - is still planned. Klaus is still not keen on that, as the book is not publicly
available, but we hope still to persuade him!
Cretan Art and crafts - Weaving pages...
The
first full project - start to finish! A beautiful traditional loom
producing beautiful products. And much more to follow. Weaving is in full
swing and natural dyes are being made up and the photographs taken to add to this
section. We will be adding our
pages on our new looms, equipment and new projects started as soon as we can.
Bird Galleries: Gallery
Page 5 still developing...
A short delay in the supply chain (apologies) has been overcome,
and we can
now proceed. One supply seems to have
been discontinued without notice, but we still have a small stock - and a new
supply has now been secured.
Our very
first nature gallery...
remains the best...
Contributed by Anastasios Sakoulis, whose book on Cretan wildlife
Moments of Cretan Nature is also on our site as a book
review.
Anastasios contributed 18 pictures of birds for addition to a gallery some
time ago now. We will attach these to our bird-watching pages
as soon as possible.
Another Gallery Still in the offing...
The
Naturally...Crete
a second gallery by
Anastasios, is still in
the works - still long overdue and causing a couple of headaches because of colour
match problems but it is progressing and will be worth the effort. If you can't
wait. the book of the same name is readily available from bookstores.
GENERAL: There are now
18 galleries
featuring aspects of Cretan life, including sunrise and sunset pictures;
Souda Bay War Cemetery; the gallery of magnificent wild-life pictures by
Anastasios Sakoulis; our own new wildlife gallery; the wild flowers; Chania;
Mhlia (Milia) traditional village; etc.. etc... etc.... And we have not even nearly
started further new galleries for which the photography is now complete,
including a WWII Museum Gallery - watch this space!!
Creating our galleries entails a vast amount of work and is expensive on
expertise, time, effort and not least money. Projects must be chosen; locations
reached; photographs taken; pages developed... A great deal of printing is also
involved. Why? Well... if (for example) you have never been horizontal with a
camera taking wild life pictures - it's a bit difficult to explain, but...
...27000 plus (and rising) monthly
unique visitor figures to Cretanvista websites were achieved last year. Reward
in itself.
Taking nothing for
granted, we are all hard at work - working on updates
and
getting out and about - obtaining the new information and photographs we
need to keep Cretanvista well to the forefront of websites about Crete. We treasure our visitors...Really!
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