Petrinja earthquake: many lost everything they had

A week has passed since the first and unprecedented earthquake that hit Croatia at the end of last December: since then several smaller quakes have been following the deadly earthquake. Our colleague arrived to the spot on Monday to join the assessment of the damages. Hungarian Interchurch Aid has been working in close cooperation with the leaders of Petrinja and the neighbouring towns and with the coordinating centres to provide the humanitarian assistance that is most needed.

HIA’s colleague reported: the downtown of Petrinja became totally inhabitable. As a result of the continuous quakes people had to leave their homes, the community buildings and the social institutes. Many sleep in their cars or looking for a temporary shelter in tents. The residents of a local nursing home were departed to a barrack, but it could be extremely dangerous for them because of the coronavirus pandemic. The circumstances are even more difficult because of the cold, rainy weather.

Many people complained about that they have just renovated their homes in the close past and now they lost everything. Although, lot of volunteers are travelling to Petrinja and help as they can: distributing warm meals and clothes or helping with the cleaning of the ruins. In this tough situation people think the reason behind the strong cooperation is that the nation has previously survived a trauma collectively and they learned they can count on each other.

Anyone can join HIA’s fundraising campaing to express their solidarity towards the victims of the earthquake – the organization is planning to spend the donations on the rebuilding of seriously damaged community buildings.