Medved: Most Requests for Urgent Accommodation in Earthquake Area Resolved

“We have on the most part resolved priority requests for urgent accommodation because the local response teams initially submitted 880 urgent requests,” said Medved during a cabinet meeting.

Medved, who is at the helm of the task force for dealing with the aftermath of the 29 December devastating earthquake, informed that 278 housing containers were set up this week in Sisak-Moslavina, Karlovac and Zagreb counties.

Currently there are 112 containers and 23 mobile homes at the Lekenik base. We have been informed that another 451 housing containers will be delivered and to date 939 have been connected to the electricity grid.

There are currently 59 families with 161 members in all, who have been accommodated in state-owned flats.

Medved underlined that the administrative preparations for the construction of a container settlement in Petrinja have been completed and a company has been hired to commence the necessary works. As soon as the groundworks are over, housing containers will be set up in the settlement.

“That will create the conditions for people who cannot live in their own homes in Petrinja to live in the immediate vicinity in housing containers or mobile homes,” said Medved.

Removing structures that pose a threat

The necessary paper-work is being prepared to remove damaged buildings, particularly those that pose a threat. By the end of the week, demolition of these building and removal of debris should commence.

Medved advised the first telecommunications base station was being set up in the area which should allow a better signal and enable students to join in online classes.

The civil protection authority has inspected 533 locations for the placement of housing containers. Firefighting units have conducted 727 interventions while the GSS mountain rescue team have conducted 117 operations.

Red Cross Croatia has distributed 120 tonnes of food, 48,000 meals and visited 469 locations. In addition the Hrvatske Vode water management company and police are at the permanent disposal of the local population.

Medved informed that there are still 117 people accommodated in the Petrinja military barracks and that 78 of them have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

To date, 45,232 applications reporting damage to homes in the area have been received and a total of 26,505 buildings have been inspected, 3,109 of these have been labelled red or unfit for use.

Describing the situation in Glina, Medved said that of a total of 7,403 properties, 2,672 of them were occupied prior to the earthquakes while 4,731 were vacant.