Exactly 40 years ago, on April 15, 1979, the Montenegrin coast was hit by an earthquake of such devastating force that no one in this area had ever remembered or described. That Sunday morning, exactly at 7:19:50, the earth shook from Novi to Ulcinj, seismographs recorded an impact with a strength of nine degrees on the Mercalli scale in the epicenter, which was not in one, but in a whole series of points on the border line with Albania up to Herceg Novi. The focus of the earthquake was at a depth of 30 kilometers, which is why it was so strongly felt throughout Montenegro, and the strong echoes reached even the most distant points of the then SFRY.
This earthquake turned the Montenegrin coast into black: 101 people lost their lives, and over a thousand were injured - among them 159 seriously. Fortunately, the number of victims was not higher because that Sunday was a bright and beautiful day that lured people out of their houses early in the morning, especially in the countryside.
Experts estimated that the damages caused amounted to about 70 billion and 675 million dinars - 4,5 times higher than the entire annual national income, and their rehabilitation took more than a decade. Only in Bar, the entire economic infrastructure was destroyed, and the damage in the area of this municipality was equal to the twenty-year social product SO Bar in that period.
- I was in Maršala Tita Street, I went to buy bread in "Vračar", which is no longer there, in its place is the current Atlas apartment building. I pass by "Ateks", there is now CKB, across from "Borovo" where NLB is now, and across from it is the Court building, where there is now a residential building. I see first that the windows of the courthouse are vibrating, getting stronger, and since it shook a lot before that, I don't pay much attention. Then it starts to shake harder and harder, the buildings start to creak, it's a sound I'll never forget. The windows are already breaking, I want to run to the apartment nearby, but I can't move. An elderly man who happened to be on the street approaches me, with him another young man, they grab my arms and shoulders, hold me, we stand like that while the ground twists under our feet. Deafening creaking of the building, glass shattering and falling all around. Before our eyes, the courthouse collapsed into a pile of concrete in a cloud of dust. I look around me, from the building of the old pharmacy there is an armature sticking out of the pillars. Everything lasted about fifteen seconds - this is how "Vijesti" previously evoked indelible memories of the children of that time, who watched the city in which they live being destroyed on the street.
The news of the disaster was first sent to the world by the then correspondent of "Politics" from Bar, the late Božidar Boško Milošević, with the help of amateur radio journalists. The earthquake caused equally great destruction over a wide area, over 250 inhabited places around the coast were badly damaged, as well as almost everything that was created by human hands in its hinterland.
Traffic was stopped, connections were severed, all roads in urban and rural areas were heavily damaged and, at first, in many places completely buried. The Adriatic highway was badly damaged, and near Kamenar, 200 meters of the route sank into the sea. The Belgrade-Bar railway, from Lake Skadar to Sutomore and Bar, was also damaged - tracks, rails, bridges, electrical traction equipment and signaling and safety devices were broken, portals on the tunnels were broken. The earth did not, so to speak, stop shaking, when an organized fight against the elements began in all of Montenegro and Yugoslavia.
In less than an hour, in many places of Montenegro, the headquarters and the entire organization of Civil Protection, security services, Territorial Defense units, state bodies at all levels have adapted to the emergency situation. The world did not remain silent either, and the wounds on the most beautiful part of the Adriatic coast soon began to heal, however, like scars, about a hundred mounds remained to remind and warn of the power of the natural elements.
- Before my eyes and the eyes of my fellow citizens, a horrible picture was created in an instant. During the ground shaking, both the building of judicial authorities and the hotel "Agava" were demolished, there were also ruins in other places in the city. Fortunately, it was a Sunday and the business premises and businesses were empty. It was a real disaster - the Bar municipality had the most deaths - 48, and more than 300 minor and serious injuries. In the first hours after the earthquake, the most difficult thing was to provide drinking water. Dubrovnik was one of the first to send us ship's tanks. There is no republic, nor city of the former SFRY, which did not send aid to our area, with the desire to repair the consequences of the disaster as soon as possible - this is how the then president of the Municipality of Bar, the late Blažo Orlandić, who was remembered for the great results achieved in the reconstruction, recalled the first moments of the destruction of the ruined city in a short time.
The destruction came in waves
A series of earthquakes that followed the first, strongest impact contributed to the unprecedented destruction in this area. In just eight days, seismographic devices registered 871 earthquakes, the strongest of which - eight degrees of the Mercalli scale - was also on April 15, in the afternoon, and two shocks of seven degrees were recorded on April 16 and 17.
The main, strongest shock was announced on two occasions - on April 9, shortly after 3:00 a.m. in Bar and Ulcinj, a seven-degree earthquake caused considerable material damage, and then immediately before the main demolition shock on Sunday, April 15 , at 6 hours and 59 minutes an earthquake of lesser strength was recorded.
Bonus video:
