New tremors hit the remote town of Al-'Eis at dawn Thursday with the largest quake registering 3 on the Richter Scale. Inspection teams have been out to the site, which lies to the north of Yanbu and Madina, and checked on the safety conditions of government premises and residents' homes. The head of Civil Defense in Madina, Saleh Al-Muhawwis, said that local residents had refused to relocate to shelters and were remaining in their houses. “We will continue our work until the tremors stop and people's fears are allayed,” Al-Muhawwis said. Over a dozen prefabricated homes have been provided to Al-'Eis along with other facilities such as mobile toilets. The tremors and their accompanying thunder-like sounds have caused concern among residents of the surrounding region over the past week, and authorities have drawn up emergency plans to shelter 60,000 people, and evacuate residents from the villages of Hadmah, Al-Qarrassah and Al-Ameed, the closest settlements to the center of most of the activity. Reports from these areas are said to be delayed by a lack of telecommunications facilities.
