Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Quake: Cracks appear on walls, ceilings of many homes in city

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN | Sep 19, 2011, 06.36PM IST

KOLKATA: Cracks have appeared on the walls and ceilings of a large number of homes in the city. Tremors emanating from an earthquake epicentered at Sikkim shook Sikkim and Bengal on Sunday evening. The city was shaken up at least thrice causing widespread panic that spilled on to Monday.

Though life limped back to normal, a large number of people found that cracks have appeared on their walls and ceilings. Inspection work is being carried out by the state PWD department in heritage buildings to see if the structures are safe or if they need to be reinforced in any way.

The metro railway officials carried out night long inspections in the tunnels to see if services could run normally on Monday.

A large number of people in the city preferred to stay back at home close to their families and did not even send children to school fearing that there could be more tremors in after shock of the earthquake.

As news of deaths poured in on the television screens, people panicked further. Many cancelled their trips to North Bengal, darjeeling and Sikkim. Seismologists tried to keep nerves soothed by repeatedly asking people not to panic.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Cracks-appear-on-walls-ceilings-of-many-homes-in-city/articleshow/10042206.cms