ZADAR, Croatia – After working through the night searching the ruins of fallen buildings in search of survivors of a powerful magnitude 6.4 earthquake that hit central Croatia, the search and rescue operation shifted on Wednesday to focus in helping tens of thousands of homeless people.
The earthquake, the second to hit the area in two days and the strongest recorded in the country in 140 years, killed at least seven people and left dozens more with broken bones, concussions and other injuries.
Even as aid workers rushed to the area, strong tremors shook the most affected city of Petrinja, as well as neighboring Sisak and Glina, about 30 miles from the capital, Zagreb.
Each time the earth shook, the few people who managed to return to their homes would go out into the streets, casting their eyes nervously between the sky above and the unstable ground below.
After a morning mist cleared, the day revealed the scale of the destruction.
The roofs had slipped from the houses, leaving mountains of rubble in the street. Other houses collapsed. Video recorded by the local media showed how the outer walls of one of them had collapsed, while an internal dining table remained almost intact, prepared for a lunch that was interrupted.
Some of the poor villages outside Petrinja appeared to have been razed to the ground, with few houses standing.
“It is not a good day,” Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbovic told Croatian state television in a morning interview. He spoke shortly after two aftershocks – one recording 4.8 and the other 4.7 magnitude – shook loose bricks from damaged buildings.
“What hasn’t fallen before is now falling from the ruins,” he said.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said it was clear that the city was no longer suitable for human habitation.
The rapid reaction of many residents when the earthquake struck seemed to have helped to prevent the number of casualties from being even worse.
Already on the edge because of the minor earthquake that occurred on Monday, many people had a chance to think about how to react when the major one occurred.
When the earth began to shake on Tuesday, Tomislav Suknajic and his son Zeljko headed for the nearest door. The house started to crumble around them. When the quake stopped, his small town of Majske Poljane was reduced to a pile of rubble. Five of the seven people who died in the earthquake lived in the area.
“We hope to die together under that door,” Suknajic told state TV. “We crouched close to a wall that remained intact for as long as possible.”
The pair left practically unharmed and grabbed a chainsaw to free a horse trapped under a collapsed barn. The horse survived.
Mr. Suknajic and his son spent the night sleeping in a car, refusing to have another roof over their heads, fearing that it would collapse again.
Residents of Petrinja and the surrounding areas have been through turbulent times even before this week’s disaster.
The city was one of the first to be torn apart by a military conflict during the Balkan wars, seized by the armed forces of what was then Yugoslavia in 1991. The siege ended up exploding in a conflagration that led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
Petrinja has been shrinking ever since.
Once one of the largest cities in Croatia, it has caused a hemorrhage of citizens in recent years, with less than 25,000 people calling home before the earthquake.
This is part of a larger demographic crisis that has led to the shrinking of Croatia’s overall population of 4.2 million, as many young people move to wealthier countries with more job opportunities. The World Bank projects that the population will decline to 3.46 million by 2050. And the European Union estimates that 15% of Croatians of working age live in other member countries.
Dumbovic, the mayor, said recovering from the earthquake was also a struggle for the city’s existence.
The Croatian government has allocated 120 million kunas, about $ 19.5 million, in aid so far, and has promised that more will come. European Union crisis management chief Janez Lenarcic said the bloc is also preparing to help.
“At the moment, most winter tents, electric heaters, beds and sleeping bags are needed, as well as housing containers,” wrote Lenarcic on Twitter.
But recovery efforts are complicated by the continuing battle to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Although the government has acted quickly to lift the ban on travel between districts to allow aid workers and volunteers to travel to the region, it still has to fight a virus that is growing in the country, as well as in much of Europe.
The 40 Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the area were transferred to Zagreb. But social detachment will be a major challenge for the tens of thousands of people forced to live in hastily arranged shelters.
Asylum residents were evacuated to Zagreb and other nearby facilities. But some remained tied to their destroyed homes. Cautious residents, most of them older, huddled around the campfires that roared near the ruins of their homes, keeping an eye on looters.
There was a demonstration of support from across the country, with humanitarian aid packages arriving in the area so quickly that the Red Cross asked Croats to stop sending provisions.
They had many eggs and there were not enough propane tanks, tents and generators, the organization said. Neighboring cities dependent on agriculture also needed mobile homes or trailers so residents could keep their animals.
“Right now, we have to ask all these good people, donors, we have to stop for a while,” said Ivana Malovic, of the local Red Cross, in an interview. “This is going to take a long time. You see how the city was destroyed. People will go hungry, they will be in need in five days, 15 days ”, he added, but thanked the donors for everything they have sent so far.
Thousands of people were being housed in temporary shelters in nearby sports arenas and army facilities, but some residents refused to leave.
Dr Marina Lokner, president of the city’s Red Cross, said it was the older residents who stayed behind.
“They came to us during the night to warm up in a tent,” she said.
Tuesday’s earthquake was the strongest recorded in Croatia using modern measurements, although the region suffered severe tremors early in its history.
Tomislav Fiket, a Croatian seismologist, told state television that more aftershocks can be expected and that caution is needed in recovery efforts.
“All of these earthquakes that hit buildings that have already been damaged can cause further damage or bring them down,” he said.
Joe Orovic reported from Zadar and Marc Santora from London.