UPDATE:"SEISM 2018": Ongoing earthquake response drill in Romania
Exercise is monitored by observers from the European Commission, the US Special Structure, World Health Organization (WHO), NATO and foreign media.
Articol de Radiojurnal, 13 Octombrie 2018, 18:37
Bucharest and large cities in Romania host, until 18 October, an impressive response drill to test intervention capacity in the event of a severe earthquake, titled "SEISM 2018". For five days, different situations are to be simulated both day and night.
Firefighters and special intervention operatives from 26 states attend the simulation that started on Saturday, 13 October. It is the most comprehensive simulation of major earthquake interventions in the European Union over the past 20 years.
Exercise – initiated by the Interior Ministry - is monitored by observers from the European Commission, US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), World Health Organization (WHO), NATO and foreign media.
"SEISM 2018" aims at involving all authorities in charge at local, regional and national level to ensure a rapid response in the event of a major earthquake.
Scenario: a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on the RICHTER scale occurred, damaging many premises of the central and local public administration, medical units, residential buildings, family houses and infrastructure (electricity supply networks, gas, treatment and purification plants, fuel transmission and distribution systems, road and railway transport). Epicenter was in the VRANCEA seismic area in NEREJU, at a depth of 140 km, and its duration was 57 seconds. Direction of seismic wave was South-West (BUCHAREST - ALEXANDRIA - SOFIA) and North-East (IAŞI - CHISINAU).
Among participants: Romanian Police, Armed Forces, military engineering units, firefighters, Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, doctors, medical evacuation teams, pharmacists.
Honorary Director of the National Institute of Earth Physics, Gheorghe Mărmureanu, draws attention to the problems of design and construction the buildings have, in the context of the ongoing earthquake exercise. Invited to Radio România News (Radio Romania Actualităţi-RRA), he specified that such exercises are important, in order to know how to act in such situations.
Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei
