42 years on from the latest seismic
\ndisaster, through a project entitled Antiseismic District, two NGOs – the
\nRomanian Association for Culture, Education and Normality (ARCEN) and Re:Rise -
\nare trying to provide an answer to the question, ‘how is Bucharest and its
\nresidents prepared to cope with another major earthquake’. The project aims at
\ntraining 20,000 Bucharesters to deal with seismic vulnerabilities in the event
\nof another devastating earthquake which cannot be predicted beforehand. Under
\nthe Romanian legislation, buildings in Bucharest have been included in seismic
\nrisk categories ranking from 1 to 4. According to ARCEN director Edmond
\nNiculusca, to most Bucharesters the legislation is ambiguous, difficult to
\nunderstand and people are by no means ready for another event of this
\nkind. <\/p>\n
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Edmond Niculusca: According
\nto the city hall, Bucharest currently has 300 buildings in the first category
\nof seismic risk. But there are also more than 16 hundred buildings which have
\nbeen included in emergency categories. Under the legislation, these emergency
\ncategories are used for prioritizing the buildings with the highest seismic
\nrisk that must be consolidated first. So, officially Bucharest has over 2,000
\nbuildings of high seismic risk, which could collapse in the event of a major
\nearthquake. In reality this number is much lower and the real number of these
\nbuildings in urgent need of consolidation is pretty much unknown. <\/p>\n
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According to experts with the
\nTechnical University of Construction, a 7.5 Richter earthquake at a depth of 90
\nkilometers would cause significant damage to 42% of Bucharest’s buildings. Some
\nof these, especially those built before 1963, are expected to be razed to the
\nground, while others will become unusable. But what can people do in order to
\ndiminish the effects of such a devastating earthquake. Here is again at the
\nmicrophone Edmond Niculusca. <\/p>\n
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Edmond
\nNiculusca: We encourage people to do
\nthe things they, as individuals, can do and assume this responsibility, which
\nenables them to make the difference between life and death, between major
\nfinancial damage and moderate damage. <\/p>\n
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One of the things people can do is
\nto have a survival kit, which should include reserves of water and food
\nsupplies, a first aid kit, a portable radio, a whistle and several clothes.
\nResidents whose blocks of flats were built before 1977, can ask for their reinforcement
\nas the law provides for a free technical expertise as well as for loans to fund
\nthe works. Only owners associations may benefit the aforementioned facilities,
\nwhich aren’t available to individual owners. Here is construction engineer
\nMatei Sumbasacu with more on this issue. <\/p>\n
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Matei Sumbasacu: We imagine
\nthat reinforcing these buildings is the only measure meant to reduce seismic
\nrisks, but that’s a false assumption. There are also other ways to get prepared
\nfor a disastrous event of this kind. The first thing is a dialogue with the
\nneighbors on the probability of such an event. This is how Re:Rise came into
\nbeing. I remember when I was living in a vulnerable block of flat I used to
\nhold talks with my neighbors on Saturdays about the probability of a big
\nearthquake to hit Bucharest. And those proved to be very useful discussions
\nfrom which we learnt a lot and which eventually led to the gradual involvement
\nof my neighbors in these anti-earthquake preparations. <\/p>\n
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The involvement of citizens in this
\nprocess may lead to an increased information level and the setting up of some
\ncommunities, which could help each other out and reduce the effects of the
\ndisaster. However, as Edmond Niculusca recalls, bringing people together in
\nthis process is no easy task. <\/p>\n
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Edmond
\nNiculusca: In fact this is very
\ndifficult. Our first meetings as part of the Antiseismic District project were
\nbeing attended by no more than 8 persons. It is very important though difficult
\nto speak about a city, the city you live in, which is actually endangering your
\nlife. But it is wrong to not do it as well and leave things unchanged. This is
\nanother challenge for us, namely to convince people to have their buildings
\ntechnically investigated by experts. Few buildings have been reinforced in the
\npast 30 years and things aren’t likely to improve in this respect. I am not
\nsure there is enough money for reinforcing all the buildings that need to be
\nreinforced. Unfortunately the situation is the same at community level; there
\nis too much red-tape and people don’t trust the authorities very much. But we
\nwant to encourage people to start considering the seismic risks they are
\npresently facing and get involved in order to reduce these risks.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
(translated by bill)<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Located in the seismic region of Vrancea, Romanias capital city, Bucharest, stands good chances to be hit by two major earthquakes a century as it happened back in 1940 and 1977, when the city was devastated by two powerful earthquakes of 7.4 degrees on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":143327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43139,28915,29079,43777],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-143326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-arcen","tag-bucharest","tag-earthquake","tag-niculusca"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n