‘Huge shock’: Greeks survey destruction after major quake

Heavy damage but no deaths after the most powerful earthquake in 80 years struck central Greece.

Damasi, Greece – The young schoolgirl crouching underneath her desk was still, even as everything around her had just been trembling. Terrified, all she could do was scream and cry. “As I approached her, I tried to reassure her, telling her not to be afraid,” said Grigorios Letsios, head teacher of the primary school of Damasi, a sleepy village in central Greece shaken by a powerful earthquake on Wednesday shortly after noon. As soon as the magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit, Letsios, a stocky 58-year-old with 32 years of teaching experience, instinctively darted out of his ground-level office, down the hallway and up the stairs.