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CHARACI'ERISTICS OF THE DISASTER
EVENT:
Earthquake
DATE-TIME: November 3, 1968
UXATION:
Montenegro
DISASTER VICTIMS : Killed Inj ured Homeless
1 30 15,000
DAMAGES: Houses - Destroyed Damaaed Sc:hools Made Unsafe -
500 1,500 47
A final sumnary report was not received from the U. S. Embassy
on this disaster. Reports on damapps were slow to come in and
are still inccmplete. Months after its occurrence, information
was received that it had been fa. more serious than reported
earlier. New information was given on the number of homeless
and the extensive damage to schools, which is included above,
but only the very early information on the number of homes
destroyed or d-ed was available and nothinc on other
buildings destroyed or damaged. It was, however, reported in
March of 1969 that the total dollar damage was estimated at
$38 million.
DESCRIFTION OF THE DISASTER
The U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey reported that the earthquake had a magnitude
of 5.3 on the Richter scale, with a focal depth of about 17 kilometers.
Its epicenter was 42.1 degrees north and 19.4 degrees east, near the
AlbanialYugoslav border. Considerable damage was reported thro~out South
Montenegro. Some of the hardest hit towns were Bar, Ulcinj and Pistula.
Besides the homes destroyed or damaged, one of the more serious effects
of the earthquake was its disruption of schooling. Of 61 schools in the
stricken area 47 of them were left unusatle and only 21 of these were considered
repakrable. This left 5,440 pupils (70% of the total) initially
without classes. They later attended classes in private homes and other
buildings with shortened hours and in several shifts. For this reason
schools had a high priority in the emergency re-establishment of activities
in these communities.