HealthBridge Global Blog

Yes, it’s true.  Romania has had devastating earthquakes in the past, and another one is expected quite soon.  Just last week the General Consul from the U.S. Embassy in Bucuresti came up to Cluj and I was invited to join him for Breakfast.  Yeah, I’m big news around here; pretty, pretty, pretty important, that’s what I am!  No, I’m not that important or connected.  I was invited because I agreed to be a contact person for U.S. citizens living in this area of Cluj incase there is an emergency.

Anyway, the point is that the Embassy rep confirmed that an earthquake is expected soon.  They are making plans to ensure that American citizens have either a way out of the country, or a place to go to should their living space be uninhabitable.  That was last week.  Then this week, the article below shows up in the paper.  And, this winter when I was in the U.S. I met with a new friend who is a consultant to the Romanian government, helping them prepared unsuitable buildings to better withstand an earthquake.  All this earthquake talk seems pretty serious.

The good news is that a potential quake is not expected to affect the area where we live too much.  On the map above, we live near the green and pink area; towards the middle.  The bad news is that it is expected to hit the capital where 10% of the population lives and where the buildings are tall, heavy, crowded, and poorly built.  As you can see in the article below, the major of the city has decided it would be best just to start preparing graves!  I guess tax payers in Bucuresti should look on the bright side and view this a pre-paid burial sites!

———————Edited Article Starts Here——————-
The three powerful earthquakes that recently rocked Haiti, Japan and Chile brought back into the spotlight a sensitive topic, the imminence of a powerful quake in Romania, which is expected to be stronger than the one in 1977 and might make up to half a million victims. Although it might seem absurd, authorities seem to be out of their league on the matter, a fact they fully acknowledge. Moreover, it seems it’s a lot easier to prepare future burial spots for possible victims than to reinforce weak buildings in Bucharest and other cities.

“In Chile, they were prepared because they listened to a smart guy who warned them. For two years, I have been trying to take all measures I can, from a medical point of view, from the point of view of relief operations, and let me tell you, but don’t think I’m being cynical, I even prepared burial spots,” Bucharest General Mayor Sorin Oprescu said on Antena 3 on Sunday evening, when asked whether he still believed a major quake would make about 500,000 victims.

“I am not sparing any efforts and I am not playing with this. I knew it, from the official talks I had; several professors I consulted and consult all the time, who work with the City Hall, back this idea, that we should be prepared because the imminence of a major quake in Bucharest is very real,” the general mayor said.

He complained of the fact that in the last 18 years in Bucharest, only two blocks of flats were reinforced, given that professor Gheorghe Marmureanu warned two years ago, “Finalizing works on seismic risk buildings should be done at the beginning of 2010, when a devastating quake is expected in Romania, similar to the one in 1977.”

(C) Bucharest Herald
Some photos of the earthquake from 1977