K. Synolakis in Proto for exercise “Minoas” in Crete: It was the largest national exercise – Our goal is to have such exercises in many areas in Greece (audio)

On the occasion of the “Minoas” exercise that took place on Monday and Tuesday in Crete, the largest that has ever been held in Greece and has to do with our reaction but also our shielding against earthquakes and other natural phenomena, he spoke at First Program of Hellenic Radio 91.6 and 105.8 and on the show “ZOIGR” with Christina Vidou, where he was a guest, o Konstantinos SynolakisProfessor of Natural Disaster Management and Head of the specific “Minos” Exercise.

“This exercise is the largest national exercisesaid Mr. Synolakis at the beginning of his conversation with the journalist. In 2011 there was also a large pan-European exercise again in Crete, to check not only the state apparatus, but also the transnational aid. In other words, it was an exercise in which the scenario exceeded Greece’s ability to cope with the crisis, whenever foreign aid came. This exercise has just ended. It is a national exercise. The scenario was not that extreme and of course we learned a lot».

Asked afterwards, if he has any conclusion regarding the part of the consultation between the services, Mr. Kostantinos Synolakis underlined “this part still needs work. In fact, the evaluation of the exercise is now done and sometimes it is as if they speak a different language. All these things must be seen, valued. It is too early. The valuation will take many days to be done, all the notes to be made, let’s sit back and see. As a first impression, it is how quickly one can evacuate. And especially in Crete you know but also in any island region, if you have an earthquake that is very close, the tsunami will come within three or four minutes, as it happened in Samos in October 2020. One should not wait for the 112 message and the tsunami. As soon as there is a large earthquake that lasts more than 15 seconds, the services should know to evacuate. Which service will do it? It is the Coast Guard for the port, the Police and the Fire Brigade. These things were not cleared up and I really hope they clear up before we have a real event. The services must know what to do. And the state must take care of this».

Finally, regarding whether it is in his plans to carry out such exercises in other places, apart from Crete, Mr. Synolakis said “what we will propose is to do such exercises in many areas in Greece, at least one big exercise a year in a different area. More specifically, one for the Ionian Islands, one for the Aegean Islands, one in the North Aegean, in Thessaloniki, one in the Dodecanese Islands, so that there is this training of the system, so that the emergency services can also see this kind of incidents that one might face in such an event. Because, as I told you, what we saw with the 112 that was over there, they didn’t know how many calls they would get. In other words, EKAV did not know what incidents, how many phone calls would come, neither did the Fire Brigade, nor the police. In this part it is necessary locally for the various services to know how many different incidents they can take. And also more importantly how we prioritize these incidents».