María José Cayuela and Sonia Marnez are two Spanish journalists who yesterday were preparing to take advantage of a few days of vacation in Marrakech, until Monday, September 11. They had everything ready, a Riad, a luxury resort in the tourist area and a lot to see, but their plans were cut short when they witnessed a violent 6.8 magnitude earthquake.
Maria José says that they arrived around 6 p.m. and went to dinner at a central restaurant in Marrakech. Exactly at 11:11 p.m. "the ground began to shake and our feet were stuck, unable to move" in a situation that they consider "very difficult to explain." From the third floor of the restaurant they watched as all the staff and customers ran out into the street, but they stayed. "Us and a waiter who spent the two minutes of the earthquake praying."
At that moment they didn't think about running. "We stayed and instinctively grabbed the crystal glasses and the bag" and they began to find out what happened through social networks, until they were aware of the magnitude of the tragedy. Loaded with their suitcases, they went out to the street and were able to take a taxi.
On the way to the hotel, they were able to perceive the disaster, "all the people were milling around in the squares and streets" and in the Medina area, the poorest in the city "the effect of the earthquake on simple houses has been devastating" says Cayuela. The taxi could not take them to their destination, so they decided to "take their bags and start walking" ignoring the advice of the locals they found in their path.
"Unconscious, we began to run through the alleys" dark, full of rubble and destruction, in the direction of the hotel. In one of the squares they found a large group of people, including several Spaniards from La Coruña, so they decided to all stay together. "There we slept on the floor until dawn" like the rest of the neighbors, who provided blankets and cots for the elderly, while the rest slept directly on the floor because they were afraid to return to their homes.
Soon after they were able to contact the Riad where they were to stay and they contacted the owner, a Mallorcan woman established in Morocco, who did not hesitate "to come looking for us". Once at the hotel, they were forced to sleep in a patio "being quite cold", in contrast to the sweltering heat they endure during the day.
Maria José and Sonia have decided that they are not leaving. "If necessary, we will go to the desert to stay in a haima," says the journalist ironically, overwhelmed by the calls she receives from friends, colleagues and family to see if they are okay. "We'll stay and we'll see what we do," they say, waiting to obtain more information from an embassy that had not contacted them, but which on social networks has made its telephone numbers available to Spaniards who are in the area of the catastrophe.
The Riad Up, the resort where the two journalists are staying, owned by the Mallorcan businesswoman, Elsa Bauzà, has emerged intact from the destruction. However, all around him is chaos and devastation.
The owner of the establishment remembers that "she was at home when the tremors began to be felt and she heard terrible creaks." She lives in an old adobe house and when she went outside "a cloud of dust came in" that prevented her from seeing anything. "I ran to the Riad that I have 20 meters from my house" to take care of her clients and find out if the building was okay.
"Everyone was in shock," he says, so they decided to go out to a public square that is 50 meters from the establishment, a space that was packed with people. At 3:30 a.m. Together with their clients they decided to return to the hotel, a Riad with an interior patio without a roof, and stay there pending a possible replica. "This morning we realized what had happened," says Bauzà, who praises his luck since many of the houses around him have been demolished.
Now it only remains to wait for "there is no more aftershock" and she affirms convinced that "Morocco is a wonderful country that, of course, will rise again".
Also staying in a Riad, on the east side of the Marrakech wall, Alexis Serrano, a French waiter of Spanish origin, remarks that the earthquake "has been terrifying." It was the last night that the 19-year-old tourist spent in the country after a week of traveling with his girlfriend and three of his friends.
"After dinner we heard a very loud noise and everything started moving. Then I ran out of the building. The walls of the stairs had gigantic cracks. For a moment I looked up to see my girlfriend, who was on the third floor, I "I was on the ground floor. And I kept running," Serrano says in a telephone conversation with this newspaper from the airport in the same city.
"It was really impressive to see parts of the wall of Marrakech on the ground. Tons of stones," details Serrano, whose riad was located a few meters from the monument. They spent the night outdoors, unable to sleep, due to the anguish they experienced, along with the residents of the urbanization, where there was damage, but no house had fallen. Around three in the morning, four hours after the earthquake, he entered the city's medina: "everyone was fleeing and there were animals everywhere," he says. "Now I just want to go home," says the young man, four hours before his flight.
Another of the witnesses who have survived the strong earthquake is the Spanish Irene Seixas, who was in the heart of the medina of Marrakech at the time of the earthquake. “Our Riad was recently renovated and it did not fall apart, although it was very affected. We put mattresses on top of ourselves. Dust kept coming in and cracks were coming out ”, she detailed in statements to the RTVE channel 24h, visibly moved.
"We decided to go out on the streets with the rest of the population. Right now we are very disheartened. It is horrible. We have been able to go out and we have a house in another part of the world, but we see children, families who have been left with nothing. It is painful "All night we have heard sirens. They can't cope."
Despite having contacted the Spanish embassy, Seixas claims that they were not provided any type of help. “We just wanted to know what to do. They told us there was no protocol. We Spaniards who gather in the street are disappointed. They have told us that unless there are deaths they could not assist us. I hope we can return soon,” he declared.
