Half The Buildings In Bucharest's Historic Center Could Collapse In Strong Earthquake

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According to Dumitrascu, no more than EUR12-13 million has been invested in these buildings' restoration and it's a wonder they are holding up at all. "There are people living in some of these buildings, and bars and restaurants on the ground floors of others," he said, adding it would take at least EUR200 million to get the buildings up to safety standards, to say nothing of making them look attractive.

Around 98% of the buildings in Bucharest's historic center are privately owned, said Dumitrascu. Because of the financial cost and the lack of solid legislation, the owners choose to let their property, for as much as EUR150 per square meter per month, much higher than the prices in one of the city's most exclusive strips, Calea Victoriei.

"The legal owners of these buildings, which are on the verge of collapsing, would rather let the ground floor for EUR130-150 per square meter, get a rent of EUR15,000 per month and put the risk on the people frequenting those establishments," said Dumitrascu.

Gheorghe Marmureanu, head of the Romanian Institute for Earth Physics, said recently that Romania might be shaken in the upcoming period by small earthquakes of magnitudes below seven degrees, which are not at all dangerous, and there will be no catastrophic earthquake in Romania at least until 2030.

Marmureanu said only few earthquakes of magnitudes higher than six degrees on the Richter scale have occurred in Romania over the past 30 years, and stressed a "catastrophic earthquake" in Vrancea, eastern Romania, means one measuring over seven degrees.