[wzslider]On 27th of October 1969, Banja Luka was hit by 6.0 magnitude earthquake according to the Richter’s scale. It began with unusually strong stroke in the night of 26th of October at 02:55 o’clock, and ground shaking continued until 08:53 o’clock. The earthquake occurred at 16:35 o’clock. Hypocenter was 20 kilometers beneath the city.
Earthquake devastated the city. A total of 15 citizens of Banja Luka died, and 1117 people were seriously or slightly injured. Material damage was enormous. A total of 86,000 apartments were completely destroyed, and great damage was caused to the schools (266), cultural (146), health (133), social facilities and public administration (152). The economy has suffered considerable loss. In the coming period, all companies worked at reduced capacity, and some of them even had to completely stop the production.
Primary and secondary school children, who have just started the school year, were driven by the buses in various parts of the former Yugoslavia to end it. Soon the reconstruction and rehabilitation of devastated buildings began, together with restoration of the city infrastructure and rapid urbanization. And over the urbanization many older people of Banja Luka sigh today, remembering how Banja Luka looked back then.
And how did Banja Luka looked before the earthquake, when there was no majority of the buildings that makes Banja Luka recognizable today, you can take a look at the photographs.
(Source: klix.ba)
