NEWS

Kefalonia: 2.5 percent of buildings set for demolition

Kefalonia: 2.5 percent of buildings set for demolition

Just 2.5 percent of buildings in Kefalonia that have been damaged during two large earthquakes on January 26 and February 3, slated for demolition by state engineers.

The engineers warned that almost every building they inspected that was illegally constructed or had unlicensed additions suffered extensively in the two earhquakes.

Infrastructure Minister, Yiannis Chrysochoidis, visited Kefalonia to be briefed on the progress of inspections to buildings and infrastructure and he headed a meeting of high-ranking government and local authority officials.

From January 27 to February 10, a total of 4,026 buildings were inspected in Argostoli and Lixouri.

Of these buildings, 42% were deemed temporarily uninhabitable and need to undergo extensive repairs. From February 10-16, inspectors carried out the second round of checks on 1,579 badly damaged buildings finding that 30% can be inhabited pending repairs, 62% will require major reconstruction and 8% will have to undergo a third inspection before being possibly demolished. The final round of inspections is expected to be completed by Friday.