Over the last two centuries, Romania has been hit by seven major earthquakes of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale. In 1977, the seism claimed the lives of 1570 people – mainly in Bucharest – and caused material damages for a total cost of over 2 billion dollars.
In order to prevent this disaster from happening again, the European Union conducted its largest ever Civil Protection mechanism exercice in Romania.
Altrough the drill was shared ironically on social media, there is no doubt that it was of paramount importance. The exercice, called Seism 2018, simulated a 7,5 magnitude earthquake causing the damage and destruction of numerous buildings, hospitals and other infrastructure, leaving 3000 dead, over 5000 wounded and 40,000 people stranded.
The simulation mobilized over 1000 people and medical teams from Austria, Germany, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Norway and Israel.
A delegation of IDF Medical Corps soldiers and officers took off from Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday October 13th to participate in this international exercice in cooperation with the European Union. The Israeli aid team built a field hospital in an earthquake scenario. Their camp was placed next to the camps of Romania, Italy, Britain and EU representatives.
The Israeli delegation of 160 active duty and reserve medical personel included doctors, nurses, pharmacists, military paramedics, mental health professionals, a veterinarian, medical assistants, a medical clown, a military rabbi and kitchen staff.
This unit, familiar to these kinds of situations, has already been deployed for rescue work in other countries such as Nepal, Haiti and the Philippines and was ranked by the World Health Organization first Level 3 Field Hospital in the world.
“This is the largest operational exercise of the Medical Corps yet," "The exercise contributes to strengthen the cooperation between the IDF and the European Union. We are performing this exercise in order to improve the preparedness of the Medical Corps to save lives." Said Mr. Frenkel, the head of the delegation,Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Head of the Operational Medical Department.