As Morocco Tries to Rebuild After Quake, Tradition Is Top of Many Minds

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Experts say the government should preserve cultural and architectural heritage, while also building disaster-resistant homes. In the meantime, residents are living in tents and in limbo.

The Agadir Oufella, a fortress in Morocco, was damaged during an earthquake in 1960 but has been restored more recently. | Hannah Reyes Morales for The New York Times
Boujemaa Kouti still remembers the screams of his neighbors trapped under the rubble of their houses, calling for help that horrific night 63 years ago.

He was just 8 and asleep when a large earthquake struck Morocco in 1960, wiping out entire neighborhoods in the coastal city of Agadir, near the Atlas Mountains, and killing at least 12,000 people.

“I saw stars when I woke up,” Mr. Kouti said, and then he heard “people screaming ‘Save me’ — calling for their family.”

Mr. Kouti’s older brother died, and the Kouti family lived in tents for almost a year as Agadir was mostly rebuilt at a location nearby deemed safer.

Rubble was bulldozed and cleared, and vast amounts of concrete was poured as buildings with stricter seismic standards went up.

The Agadir Oufella, a 16th-century fortress partly damaged in the quake, was eventually restored, and a memorial was erected on top of a hill where many died. » | Aida Alami, Reporting from Agadir and Marrakesh, Morocco | Sunday, November 19, 2023