Deadly earthquake leaves Croatia in ruins, one city 'no longer livable'
A deadly, massive earthquake has left much of the Balkan Peninsula rattled on Tuesday. A magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook central Croatia, followed up by aftershocks that registered a magnitude 4.4 quake.
As of Wednesday morning, at least seven fatalities have been confirmed, according to The Associated Press. Dozens others are injured, mostly in villages surrounding the town of Petrinja.
The strength of the quake was calculated by the European Mediterranean Seismological Center, which reported the earthquake to have occurred 28 miles southeast of Zagreb, Croatia's capital city.
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People move through remains of a building damaged in an earthquake, in Petrinja, Croatia, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. A strong earthquake has hit central Croatia and caused major damage and at least one death in a town southeast of the capital. (AP Photo) |
State broadcast channel HRT confirmed the 12-year-old girl killed in the quake was residing in Petrinja.
"The center of Petrinja as it used to be no longer exists," HRT said in its report, according to The AP. "One girl died and there are injuries and people inside collapsed buildings."
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Residents remove debris from a street from a building damaged in an earthquake, in Petrinja, Croatia, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. A strong earthquake has hit central Croatia and caused major damage and at least one death in a town southeast of the capital Zagreb. (AP Photo/Sasa Kavic) |
Petrinja Major Darinko Dumbovic painted an even more drastic picture in his statement to HRT, comparing his city to Hiroshima, Japan, after the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945.
"My town has been completely destroyed, we have dead children," Dumbovic said in the statement. "This is like Hiroshima - half of the city no longer exists... The city has been demolished, the city is no longer livable. We need help."
Tuesday's quake follows an earlier 5.2 magnitude earthquake that shook the same region on Monday, and its aftershocks were still being felt the following day. According to DW.com, the Monday earthquake also struck near the towns of Petrinja and Sisak, damaging hundreds of buildings. No fatalities were recorded from that quake.
The fatality total from the devastation is expected to rise greatly in the hours and days to come. According to the USGS Pager estimations, between 10 and 100 fatalities are likely while $100 million to $1 billion of damage is estimated.
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Shake map shared by USGS showing the wide-ranging effects of the earthquake. (Image via USGS) |
According to The AP, shaking from the earthquake was felt in the neighboring countries of Serbia, Bosnia and Slovenia. In Slovenia, authorities temporarily shut down the Krsko nuclear power plant, which is jointly owned by Slovenia and Croatia and located near their border.
Going ahead, weather conditions for cleanup efforts are expected to be complicated in the coming days by Storm Bella, AccuWeather Meteorologist Maura Kelly said.
One round of rain and snow is expected to exit the region on Thursday leaving a largely dry day on Friday. Dry weather, however, is not expected to last as another storm will bring rain and snow over the weekend.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
