In case of strong earthquake, 75% of the Romanians could be affected, read the conclusions of the consolidation strategy project of the General Inspectorate for the Emergency Situations.
The project shows that there would a high number of victims due to the scarce or poor rescue equipment for saving-searching missions in case of quake. Moreover, the rescuers themselves would be in danger, as 32 buildings where firemen work have a higher seismic risk.
Therefore, new training investments are needed, but particularly money is needed to buy the necessary equipment. The document says that more than EUR 100 M are needed.
The last strong earthquake in Romania was the one in March 1977.
The 1977 Vrancea earthquake occurred on Friday, 4 March 1977, at 21:22 local time, and was felt throughout the Balkans. It had a magnitude of 7.2, making it the second most powerful earthquake recorded in Romania in the 20th century, after the 10 November 1940 seism.
The quake killed about 1,578 people (1,424 in Bucharest) in Romania, and wounded more than 11,300.
About 32,900 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Immediately after the seism, 35,000 families were without shelter. The economic losses are believed to have been as high as two billion US dollars though the sum was not confirmed by the authorities at that time. A detailed report on the destruction the earthquake caused was never published.
Most of the damage was concentrated in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, where about 33 large buildings collapsed. Most of those buildings were built before the World War II, and were not reinforced. After the earthquake, the Romanian government imposed tougher construction standards.