Pictures revealed 45 years after the deadly earthquake in Romania

In the winter of 1977, Livia Scherich captured photographs of the aftermath of one of the worst earthquakes in modern Europe. Then the historical colored slides remained in her wardrobe for nearly half a century.

This photo, of a severely damaged apartment building in the center of Bucharest, was taken on March 6, 1977, two days after the earthquake that devastated much of Romania.

A Romanian soldier stands near the computer center of the Ministry of Transport in Bucharest.

Tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed and 1,578 killed in Romania during the 1977 disaster. In addition, more than 100 people were killed in neighboring Bulgaria.

The epicenter was in a mountainous area north of Bucharest, but the Romanian capital was severely damaged.

Livia Cherishes was filmed in the 80’s.

Livia Chereches took the pictures in this gallery two days after the disaster and then rarely showed them to anyone for 45 years. In August 2022, she presented the rare color slides to Azopan, a volunteer-run Romanian photo archive.

Edgar Szucks, one of the founders of Azopan, posted the photos to the Archive’s Facebook page on August 30. He says the images struck a chord because “the earthquake is still alive in the memory of the whole of Roman society”.

Chereches is now 72 years old, but her memories of the earthquake and how these photos were taken are still vivid.

Damage to the Palace of Culture in Ploiesti.

Chereches was relaxing in front of the television in late March 4, 1977, when the earthquake struck. At 9:22 p.m., the desk worker noticed that “in the corner of the apartment, the wall was splitting in two,” she told RFE/RL over the phone.

As the earthquake hit, Chereches scrambled to the sixth-floor balcony in the western Bucharest suburb of Drumul Taberei for a surreal view.

“There was a strange kind of light, and those big apartment complexes were swaying,” she says. For a moment, the young woman expected her life to end.

Crowds gather near a badly damaged apartment building in central Bucharest.

Then Cherich set off to work, took a backpack she had packed for a weekend walk, and pulled her panicked classmate Adina out of the apartment.

“The elevator was open for us, but I wouldn’t let her in,” Cherkes says. “Only because I knew from experience that I was faster than the elevator.”

A ruined building in Bucharest that was later demolished.

On the street, Chereches remember crowds of people standing in their pajamas in the dark.

“Imagine, there is no light, no electricity, no silence,” she says. “Everything stops, and at that moment you are lost. You don’t know if the whole world is gone and only you live, or if this happened to you alone, in your neighborhood. We knew nothing. It was very, very strange.”

She says that by tuning Radio Free Europe to a stranger’s portable walkie-talkie, people quickly learned that it was an earthquake, that there were deaths, and that most of the damage was in Bucharest.

Workers remove the rubble of a destroyed building in the center of Bucharest.

The immediate impulse was to find “someone you knew, to be near. You wanted some protection,” says Chereches.

While walking through town toward Adina’s parents’ home, the couple approached Bucharest City Hall, then run by the country’s communist regime.

“In City Hall, there was a light, probably from a generator, and soldiers were coming and going. There was a whole activity,” she recalls. “I wanted to enter to ask for news, but they wouldn’t let me in.”

Then, near the next corner, the couple witnessed their first scenes of tragedy.

Crowds gather at the place of an apartment collapse.

“I saw the worst memory I’ve ever tried to forget. An old tall building was burnt down. It just collapsed. There were already people taking out bodies. The smell…was terrible. There was no organized help yet,” she says. “It was something made on the spot by normal people. I don’t know who. I just saw that they were moving bodies from under the rubble.”

A damaged synagogue that was later demolished.

Incredibly, when the husband arrived at Adina’s parents’ house, the relatives went back to sleep. Chereches believes that Adina’s parents’ passive reaction may have been an example of the necessary survival instinct in communist countries where the authorities can look at people’s lives upside down.

“I suspect [Adina’s mother] You don’t want to be seen, you don’t want to make a fuss. You never know what is good behavior, and what is wrong. It would have been better if you hadn’t been noticed.”

Oranges for sale in the shop window. “Very sweet oranges. 13 lei per kilogram,” the sign reads.

The next day, Chereches says society was briefly changed due to the tragedy.

“On the street, everyone was very helpful and nice, as I had never seen him before. People were willing to help, ready to rest, asking if I needed something.”

The morning after the earthquake, rewards usually reserved for people in good relations were available to everyone.

“That morning, I remember the shopkeepers opening hidden things on the shelves. There was a rarity back then that you couldn’t get, like oranges, lemons, and mineral water. Now everything is on display. You can buy anything.”

The collapse of the Ministry of Transportation’s computer center.

On March 6, two days after the earthquake, Chirix’s friend returned from a trip to the mountains with her camera. Only then was the amateur photographer able to tour the city documenting the aftermath of the disaster, albeit from a distance. By that time, the authorities had completely closed off many of the streets where the damage was severe.

Looking at the photos, Chereches says, “Honestly, I’m a little proud of myself for how calm I acted and how I acted.”

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