Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 1: Bunjelung Calcottin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Speaker 1: Straight Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os It's Tuesday,
Speaker 2: the twelfth of September. I'm Sam, I'm Zara. Over the weekend,
Speaker 2: a six point eight magnitude earthquake struck Morocco. It was
Speaker 2: the country's strongest quake in over a century.
Speaker 1: Rescue teams in Morocco are desperately trying to reach remote
Speaker 1: villages close to the epicenter of the earthquake in the
Speaker 1: isolated High Atlas Mountain Range.
Speaker 2: I'm talking in a really quiet voice because they're listening
Speaker 2: out to see if there are any signs of life.
Speaker 2: But really hope is fading extremely quickly.
Speaker 3: A growing national death doll has now climbed above two thousands.
Speaker 3: The destruction is not concentrated in a single area. It
Speaker 3: is spread through villages like this, and the roads to
Speaker 3: get here are winding, narrow and treacherous. In some places
Speaker 3: they are blocked, but the rescue continues.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, we've been warned that the deathtop, which is already
Speaker 2: in the thousands, could increase significantly. Many are still missing
Speaker 2: and feared trapped beneath the rubble, and a huge and
Speaker 2: complex rescue effort is underway in a race to find
Speaker 2: survivors for first rs. Some big movement on the federal
Speaker 2: government's housing bill.
Speaker 4: That's right. The Greens have announced support for the federal
Speaker 4: government's Housing bill after Labour pledged a further one billion
Speaker 4: dollars in short term social housing funding. So we spoke
Speaker 4: a number of times on this podcast about the fact
Speaker 4: that the Greens were refusing to support the bill, but
Speaker 4: yesterday we have a big press conference and that has
Speaker 4: now changed. The bill is now expected to pass and
Speaker 4: we'll create a ten billion dollar investment fund for social
Speaker 4: and affordable housing.
Speaker 2: Almost five thousand vapes have been seized in South Australia.
Speaker 2: Health authorities confiscated the vapes from one hundred and eighty businesses,
Speaker 2: some of which were found hidden in pizza boxes. Over
Speaker 2: ninety percent of the vapes contains nicotine, making them illegal
Speaker 2: for sale.
Speaker 4: Novak Djokovic has won the US Open, which now means
Speaker 4: he has won twenty four Grand Slam titles, making him
Speaker 4: equal with Australian Margaret Court. The thirty six year old
Speaker 4: player took three hours and sixteen minutes to defeat Russian
Speaker 4: Danil Medvedev in three sets. Djokovic is now the first
Speaker 4: men's tennis champ to win three of the four Grand
Speaker 4: Slams in a single season in three separate years, after
Speaker 4: winning the Australian Open and French Open.
Speaker 2: And today's good news, Australian Josh Giddy has been named
Speaker 2: as one of the best young basketball players in the
Speaker 2: whole world. The twenty year old has been named the
Speaker 2: first ever wander Rising Star of the Basketball World Cup.
Speaker 2: An that's a title given to the tournament's most promising
Speaker 2: young player. When he's not representing Australia wearing the Boomers,
Speaker 2: Josey Giddy plays for the NBA's Oklahoma City thunder So
Speaker 2: Late on Friday night local time and earthquakes struck Morocco
Speaker 2: and the worst of it was felt in parts of
Speaker 2: the Atlas Mountains, which is about seventy kilometers from the
Speaker 2: city of Marrakesh. As it stands, more than two thousand
Speaker 2: people have died. Entire villages have been destroyed, and major
Speaker 2: historical sites have been damaged. Now, the force of this
Speaker 2: quake was so significant that tremors were felt as far
Speaker 2: away as Portugal. Now emergency workers are struggling to deliver
Speaker 2: aid to cut off remote villages, and there's a race
Speaker 2: against the clock to rescue as many people as possible
Speaker 2: that are still trapped beneath the rubble.
Speaker 4: We got an alert on Saturday morning local time and
Speaker 4: it said that, you know, this earthquake had happened. And
Speaker 4: then what felt like minutes later, we were getting news
Speaker 4: alerts saying that, you know, hundreds of people had died,
Speaker 4: and then hours later it was that thousands of people
Speaker 4: had died. And I mean, I think that so often
Speaker 4: these numbers are beyond comprehension, and so I'm really eager
Speaker 4: to understand how an earthquake like this can be so destructive,
Speaker 4: how it can lead to such a high loss of
Speaker 4: human life.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's the biggest earthquake to Morocco in one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty years. And I think in terms of
Speaker 2: trying to answer that question of why it was so destructive.
Speaker 2: There is something to be learned from how shallow the
Speaker 2: earthquake was. It was ten to twenty kilometers beneath the surface.
Speaker 4: So the deeper it is, the less destructive. In theory,
Speaker 4: an earthquake should.
Speaker 2: Be exactly the closer it is to our surface level
Speaker 2: of the Earth, the more that we're going to feel
Speaker 2: it. It also means that the more buildings collapse and therefore
Speaker 2: the more casualties. But on top of all of that,
Speaker 2: you have to remember as well that the homes in
Speaker 2: the mountains are mostly built with mud bricks and that
Speaker 2: makes them particularly susceptible to destruction.
Speaker 4: So is Morocco on a fault line because I think
Speaker 4: you mentioned before that this was the worst earthquake in
Speaker 4: over a century in Morocco, so presumably they've had earthquakes.
Speaker 2: Before they have. But the Atlas Mountains were actually formed
Speaker 2: as a direct result of Europe and Africa colliding. That's
Speaker 2: why there's a mountainous range, So they'd sit specifically on
Speaker 2: the border of two plates, and that is what makes
Speaker 2: the area an earthquake zone. That being said, though earthquakes
Speaker 2: of this magnitude are rare, in Morocco, and the center
Speaker 2: of the quake, which is high in those mountain ranges,
Speaker 2: was actually a long way from the tectonic plate boundary.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and four was the last time that Morocco
Speaker 2: experienced a quake anywhere near this level. And then a
Speaker 2: six point four magnitude earthquake claimed more than six hundred lives.
Speaker 4: So you said that the epicenter was in the mountains,
Speaker 4: and the hardest hit areas are rural villages. I imagine
Speaker 4: that that would greatly impact the ability for a rescue
Speaker 4: operation to take place.
Speaker 2: It's proving to be a huge challenge in the recovery
Speaker 2: efforts just where the site is, so emergency workers are
Speaker 2: really struggling to deliver aid to cut off communities. So
Speaker 2: it's not even then about trying to get people out
Speaker 2: of the rubble. It's also about trying to support people
Speaker 2: who are just trying to survive, and that includes things
Speaker 2: like delivering food and water, and their job became even
Speaker 2: harder when there was an after shock. So there was
Speaker 2: a four point five magnitude earthquake that rattled the exact
Speaker 2: same region, and what that is all meant is that
Speaker 2: many residents are now sleeping outside their homes because the
Speaker 2: fear there is that the after shocks will lead to
Speaker 2: further disruction. Whilst there are buildings still standing, a lot
Speaker 2: of those buildings now are very unstable.
Speaker 4: I think that's an important thing to think about when
Speaker 4: we're talking about a natural disaster of this degree, is
Speaker 4: that there's the imminent aftermath, the tremendous loss of life,
Speaker 4: the huge impact on infrastructure. But really it's also as
Speaker 4: much about the weeks and the months after as it
Speaker 4: is about the days after, because.
Speaker 2: Things like electricity grids and sewage systems and infrastructure.
Speaker 4: And we saw in Turky earlier this year that the
Speaker 4: story only kept unfolding. Can we expect to see survivors
Speaker 4: still pulled from the rubble in the coming days or
Speaker 4: have Moroccan authorities based said they've done everything they can.
Speaker 2: No, we're still very much in that race against the
Speaker 2: clock kind of acute stage of this disaster. So rescue
Speaker 2: teams are trying their best to get to those areas
Speaker 2: to still rescue people buried, but they're having to contend
Speaker 2: with rocks blocking the roads in the mountains, and as
Speaker 2: a result, we've actually seen locals themselves digging through the rubble,
Speaker 2: however they can. They're using shovels, they're using their hands,
Speaker 2: just trying to find anyone who could still be alive.
Speaker 4: I know that there was also some damage to historical
Speaker 4: sites in Marrakesh.
Speaker 2: Right, particularly the Old Quarter in Marrakesh. So the Old
Speaker 2: Quarter dates back to the eleventh century and it suffered
Speaker 2: extensive damage. There are photos that have emerged of the
Speaker 2: Old Quarter, which itself is the NESCo Heritage Site, that
Speaker 2: show significant damage and destroyed buildings. And then if we
Speaker 2: move higher up the mountains, there's a twelfth century mosque
Speaker 2: that's been destroyed as well.
Speaker 4: I read in an article that the World's Health Organization
Speaker 4: said that more than three hundred thousand people had been
Speaker 4: affected by the disaster. I presume then that a disaster
Speaker 4: of this scale has prompted international response.
Speaker 2: Right, so, Morocco is accepted aid from the UK, Spain, Qatar,
Speaker 2: and the US, And what that aid actually looks like
Speaker 2: is hundreds of search and rescue experts as well as
Speaker 2: medical personnel, humanitarian assistants and even some sniffer dogs. There
Speaker 2: are many other countries who have pledged support par are
Speaker 2: yet to deliver it, and that list includes France, Israel,
Speaker 2: Algeria and even Turkia who are still recovering themselves from
Speaker 2: the earthquake that struck the country in February. And then
Speaker 2: if we look to international organizations, the UN and the
Speaker 2: World Bank have both offered support.
Speaker 4: And then what about Australia. I think that when you
Speaker 4: feel so geographically far and so helpless watching or reading
Speaker 4: or listening to news about Morocco, what's our government saying?
Speaker 2: So? Foreign Minister Penny Wong posted on social media over
Speaker 2: the weekends. She said there had been a devastating loss
Speaker 2: of life and destruction of property. The Department of Foreign
Speaker 2: Affairs said it wasn't aware yet if any Ozzie had
Speaker 2: been injured in the quake, and the Australian government has
Speaker 2: not yet made an official announcement on what assistance it
Speaker 2: might offer.
Speaker 4: Between the death toll and the thousands and thousands of
Speaker 4: displaced locals who are now without a home, this is
Speaker 4: one of those stories that you just can't help but
Speaker 4: feel so saddened by. There is no silver lining to this.
Speaker 4: It is news that we need to know, but it
Speaker 4: doesn't make it any less horrific to read about or
Speaker 4: to listen to. But There will be a lot more
Speaker 4: information in the coming days as the search continues, and
Speaker 4: will continue to bring you that news as it comes.
Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us today on the Daily Odds. If
Speaker 4: there is a topic that you would like us to
Speaker 4: unpack or explain, you can head to Spotify where there
Speaker 4: is a question box and you can write exactly what
Speaker 4: it is that you want simplified. We will endeavor to
Speaker 4: get to all of those suggestions, but until then, have
Speaker 4: a great day.