December 31, 2020 – The Croatian media has published various Majske Poljane videos showing the scale of destruction, tragic loss, and a miraculous escape.
I knew that visiting the scene of the Petrinja earthquake was going to be traumatic, but I am glad that I did. Apart from helping me understand the realities on the ground better, I hope the report has been informative for the many people wanting to help Croatia in this time of national tragedy. You can read Majske Poljane, Glina, Petrinja: A Foreigner View of Croatia’s Emergency Response here.
Nowhere was more devastated than the first place we visited, Majske Poljane. Without the resources or connections of the mainstream big Croatian media, it was always going to be hard for me to get the full story. Reading through the various accounts and watching videos from my Croatian colleagues has recorded events and human stories in a way that I could not. Here are a selection of Majske Poljane videos from the aftermath, with their YouTube commentary translated below. The most shocking realisation from watching these videos is finding that the first house we visited – with the ten shell-shocked horses – was the house where four people were tragically killed.
It is cold in Majske Poljane. Clouds hovered over the village, which no longer exists. No one reacts to constant tremors anymore. Silently, with dark circles under their eyes, calm men clean the remnants of their former lives. Five locals were killed. Dario Tomić, the son of the deceased Franjo and the brother of the deceased Marija, raises a photograph of his family from the ruins. The whole house fell on them, there was no salvation for them. Dario folds the photo, the only one left for him after this horror. He has no tears, he is strong, he sticks to the rest of the family, to the mother who survived.
Majske Poljane – The village in the Glina area that suffered the most in the earthquake. Borislav Meandđija came out a second before the earthquake to go to the city to get a credit card. That second was enough to save his life, as the house behind him collapsed to its foundations.
The village of Majske Poljana near Glina that suffered the most in the earthquake. A strong earthquake hit Croatia yesterday, the epicenter of the 6.2 magnitude earthquake was 3 kilometers from Petrinja. The Croatian Mountain Rescue Service and search dogs on the ruins of the house where father and son Tomić were killed yesterday
HINA also recorded its observations.
The nearby town of Petrinja from the air.
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