Earth tremors experienced in different parts of the country have prompted the Ministry of Disaster Management to organize earthquake awareness programmes for civilians and schoolchildren.
Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, accompanied by Meteorology Department officials and seismology experts, were present at a workshop held on Thursday.
The effect of tremors and quakes on buildings and other structures and finding ways to minimise damage to buildings affected by quakes were top of the agenda during the discussions.
Tremors were experienced in the central hill country on Sunday May 20 at 1.44 am and on Friday May 26 at 9.52 pm.
The first tremor registered 3.3 on the Richter scale and the second registered 3.6, said geophysicist Nilmini Thaldena of the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB).
The tremors were reported from Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Ampara, Hakmana and Matara. Residents in Colombo and Jaffna had also experienced the tremors.
Sri Lanka has been subject to quakes in the past, the most disastrous occurring 400 years back. On April 14, 1615, a powerful earthquake killed some 2,000 people and damaged 200 homes, according to an officer at the Disaster Management Centre.
Ambassador visits Lankans displaced by Italy quake
Sri Lankans displaced by the recent earthquake in Italy were visited in their temporary shelter by Ambassador Asitha Perera, who inquired after their wellbeing and satisfied himself that they were being adequately sheltered and looked after. No Sri Lankans were killed or injured in the quake or its after-shocks.
Eight Sri Lankan families in the San Felice sul Panaro area and 12 others in the Mirandola area were displaced by the first quake on May 20.
Sri Lankans living in other parts of Italy, especially in Modena and Milan, have donated food and clothes to be distributed among the displaced Lankans. |
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