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☆ As Morocco Tries to Rebuild After Quake, Tradition Is Top of Many Minds
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Aida Alami | More About Aida Alami | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Whatever the fate of the villages dotted across the Atlas Mountains, the example of Agadir shows just how difficult it is to repair the trauma of a devastating earthquake. Every year around the end of February, the anniversary of the disaster, a commemoration occurs. The graveyard sits on a hill that once was a neighborhood of Agadir. Not much remains from that time: some trees, a disused hospital and the ruins of collapsed homes. Sometimes visitors come to ask him to help them locate the grave of a loved one.

Persons: Mohammed V, ” Mr, Kouti Locations: Agadir, Agadir’s, Ihchach

In many areas hit by the quake, there were complaints that the government was slow to rescue and bring relief supplies to stricken villages. Driving along the road to the Tizi N’Test pass, the challenges faced by relief workers getting through became clear. Upon seeing the blocked road, they begged Mr. Id Lahcen and his colleague, Mustapha Sekkouti, to help get their bags of supplies to the other side. “This reality, we want it to be a memory in our history,” said Mr. Sekkouti, 50. Helping clear the road to save lives.”The efforts by Mr. Id Lahcen and Mr. Sekkouti opened a gap near the top of the road on Sept. 11, allowing some aid to get through.

Persons: Lahcen, Mustapha Sekkouti, ”, Sekkouti, “ Organizations: New York Times Locations: Rabat

Now she stood near the Koutoubia Mosque, where she and other Marrakesh residents once prayed regularly, filling it during the holy fasting month of Ramadan or the days of Eid. Its square had been sealed off by metal barriers and police tape while experts assessed the damage, but no final diagnosis had been made, according to a government official. “I would love to go there and pray for the dead,” said Ms. Chuegra, “but I’m afraid it might collapse.”Elsewhere in Marrakesh, several museums, as well as the 16th-century El Badi Palace (often translated as “The Incomparable”) and the late 19th-century El Bahia Palace (“The Beautiful”) were closed to visitors. Experts have judged them to be in serious condition, and what appeared to be materials for shoring up the structure of El Badi were piled outside the palace on Wednesday. Residents said the apparently untouched or lightly cracked exterior walls of the homes hid serious destruction within.

Persons: “, ”, Chuegra, El Organizations: Residents Locations: Koutoubia, Marrakesh, Bahia, El Badi, Medina, guesthouses

Before the tourists came to marvel at the valley cradled in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, with its arid red slopes splashed with lush green and its deep-blue lake, the only living to be made was in olive farming, and not much of a living at that. Then came the modest little hiking lodge and the luxury resort, and the quasi-palace owned by Richard Branson and the inns set up by the people of the Ouirgane Valley, many of whom are members of the Amazigh ethnic group, more commonly known as Berbers. As more and more tourists discovered over the last few decades that the area was only an hour’s drive from the city of Marrakesh, the residents of villages like Ouirgane got jobs as guides for mule riding and hiking, drivers, waiters, hoteliers, restaurateurs and more. Many were able to move back home from Moroccan cities like Marrakesh and Essaouira, where they had taken jobs to support families in their villages.

Persons: Richard Branson, Ouirgane Locations: Atlas, Marrakesh, Moroccan, Essaouira

Others tried to comfort the wounded and grieving. A lack of ambulances and other transportation from Douar Tnirt meant that some people who had been pulled alive from the rubble over the weekend died before they could be taken to Marrakesh for treatment, residents said. Others waited for hours before being driven there by private transport. Some Moroccans expressed frustration with the pace of aid efforts. “Help was extremely late,” said Fouad Abdelmoumni, a Moroccan economist.

Persons: Tnirt, “, ”, Fouad Abdelmoumni, King Mohammed VI Organizations: Moroccan Locations: Casablanca, Marrakesh, Moroccan

When the earth seized his house and shook it late Friday night, Mohamed Abarada ran outside with his 9-month-old daughter in his arms. Mr. Abarada started digging with his bare hands. He dug by day with the help of neighbors and relatives, and by night with the flashlight on his phone. But on Monday, his daughter Chaima had yet to be found. With Mr. Abarada’s shoulder injured, his fellow searchers urged him to rest while they kept sifting through what had been his house — broken bricks mingled with broken wood, bamboo roofing, couch cushions, a satellite dish and teakettles, all the flotsam of family life.

Persons: Mohamed Abarada, Abarada, Chaima, Abarada’s, — Locations: Douar Tnirt

With debris and fallen rock blocking roads to Moroccan villages hit hardest by an earthquake, many residents began burying their dead and foraging for scarce supplies on Sunday as they waited for government aid. That wait may be lengthy. The most powerful quake to hit the region in a century spared neither city apartment dwellers nor those living in the mud-brick homes of the High Atlas Mountains, but many in the remote and rugged areas of Morocco have been left almost entirely to fend for themselves. Survivors, faced with widespread electricity and telephone blackouts, said they were running low on food and water. Some bodies were being buried before they could be washed as Muslim rituals require.

Locations: Morocco

Rescuers in Morocco are racing to dig survivors out of rubble after the country’s worst earthquake in a century flattened homes and buildings, killing at least 2,000 people. The magnitude-6.8 quake struck in the mountains south of Marrakesh, an ancient city that is a popular tourist destination. The quake particularly devastated communities in the Atlas Mountains, where the full extent of the damage is still unknown. Debris has blocked some of the region’s roads, making it difficult for rescue crews to reach remote communities. Frantic rescue effortsIn some remote areas, people sifted through debris with their bare hands to search for survivors.

Locations: Morocco, Marrakesh

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated its magnitude at 6.8, but the Moroccan geological institute put it at 7.2. That would make it more than twice as large, according to the logarithmic scale on which earthquakes are measured. The U.S. agency said local estimates can often be more accurate, but initial readings of magnitude are measured automatically and need to be reviewed by seismologists. But it was clear that the scope of the catastrophe was extensive, with the rural provinces outside of Marrakesh the hardest hit. Moroccan architects say the area near the epicenter has many earthen houses that are not built to withstand an earthquake of this strength.

Persons: Omar Farkhani Organizations: Geological Survey, seismologists, United Nations ’ Office, Humanitarian Affairs, UNESCO, of Architects Locations: U.S, Moroccan, Marrakesh, Marrakesh’s Medina

Khadija Rmichi’s path to the Women’s World Cup started on a bicycle. Rmichi, a goalkeeper, grew up in Khouribga, a mining city in central Morocco. She was frequently drawn instead to the soccer played by boys in the streets. “It was considered shameful to play with boys,” Rmichi, now 33, said in an interview in April. He told Rmichi that if she could find enough girls to form a team, he would train them.

Persons: ” Rmichi, “, Rmichi Locations: Khouribga, Morocco

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