Once a bustling town in Thessaly, Greece, Ropoto is now a ghost town. What happened to this locale to make it so desolate? Well, in 2012, a landslide caused homes and buildings to cascade down the side of a hill, displacing 300 families in the process. The 12-minute documentary Ropoto: Greece’s Sinking Ghost Town details what happened on the day of the landslide, reveals that the sinking continues to happen, and sheds light on the unwillingness of the Greek government to help its own people. As you walk through Ropoto, you might confuse it with the set of a disaster movie. Indeed, the town is still reeling from the effects of the real-life disaster that changed everything 4 years ago. YouTube / Greek Reporter Due to poor drainage, townspeople always relied on specialized machines to move the water around. But when the machines didn’t do their job in 2011, it led to a massive landslide that occurred on April 12, 2012. YouTube / Greek Reporter When the mountain began forming cracks in the ’60s, scientists warned the Greek government that something like this would happen. Sadly, people continued to build on the dangerous land for profit. YouTube / Greek Reporter var OX_ads = OX_ads || []; OX_ads.push({ slot_id: “537251602_56eb95b8af979”, auid: “537251602” }); Many people are still left without homes, and to this day, the town has no electricity. Many residents stay in barns with their animals. Since the last landslide, the town has slipped between 10 and 15 centimeters down the hillside, and Ropoto continues to sink more every year. YouTube / Greek Reporter Here is the entire documentary. It features one of the village’s former council members, Yorgos Roubies. (via Oddity Central) The Greek government refuses to send aid to Ropoto. Some villagers say that they still receive bills for taxes on properties that were ripped out from under them years ago. Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/ropoto/
Urban Explorer Seph Lawless is known for exploring empty, eerie places — and Picher, Oklahoma, is definitely one of the most unsettling. Picher started out as a promising mining town in 1918, but today, it is known as the most toxic city in America. After years of water contamination and sludge buildup, the whole town was evacuated. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCBP_ATF’); }); For his latest project, Lawless journeyed to this foreboding town and walked its silent streets. There is nothing safe about being inside Picher’s city limits, but that definitely wasn’t enough to extinguish his curiosity. Abandoned for over a decade, this city once thrived with a booming mining industry in the early 20th century. Seph Lawless googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCBM_BTF’); }); During Oklahoma’s expansion in 1913, huge amounts of lead and zinc were found in the area. Being at the center of all this new mining work, a settlement was formed and its population had reached nearly 10,000 people by 1920. Seph Lawless It was named after Oliver Picher, owner of the Picher Lead Company. Seph Lawless It became so successful that at one point, it was producing over $20 billion of ore, quickly making it the most lucrative mining settlement in the state. Seph Lawless Over half of the lead and zinc used by the U.S. military during World War I came from the city. Seph Lawless But everything changed after mining stopped in 1967. Hazardous waste and contaminated water from mine shafts created a toxic environment. Seph Lawless googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCI1_BTF’); }); The situation got so bad that the U.S. government designated it as a Superfund site, which identified it as a candidate for cleanup because of the dangerous risk that was posed to people living there. Seph Lawless Unfortunately, Picher couldn’t be salvaged. Officials evacuated the area in 2009 and classified it as the most toxic city in America. Seph Lawless Residents were forced out of their homes and relocated. They left many of their possessions behind, which turned their houses into chilling time capsules that now commemorate an awful point in Oklahoma’s history. Seph Lawless Lawless noticed when he started exploring that people’s clothes were still hanging in their closets as if they’d only just left. Seph Lawless Because of extensive mining, the ground beneath the explorer’s feet could have given way at any time. Seph Lawless As Lawless walked through the streets, he feared that he would fall to his death. Seph Lawless googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘VN_PG_DCI2_BTF’); }); Mining also left behind huge piles of siliceous rock and dolomite waste called “chat.” The mounds are so large that they look like mountains surrounding the city. Seph Lawless Approximately 34 percent of children from Picher were found to be suffering from lead poisoning by the time 1996 rolled around. Seph Lawless In the short amount of time that Lawless spent on one of the hills, he reported feeling nauseous and very uneasy. Seph Lawless But despite all of the dangers, the city’s pharmacist, Gary Linderman, refused to leave […]
