Moldova will be 'shaken' in August

Rescuers, doctors, firefighters and other emergency services specialists from over 30 countries will take part in an earthquake simulation exercise in Moldova in August. Civil Protection and Emergencies Service press officer Dorina Sochirca has told Info-Prim Neo that employees of the emergency services will simulate rescue and search operations to find persons who remained blocked under the wreckage. There will be also imitated numerous secondary quake effects that will require specialized intervention. There will simulated activities to deal with leakages of toxic and radioactive substances, inundations caused by broken pipes, landslides as well as a plane crash, when the aircraft will fall into a pool. The preparations are under way. The exercise will take place about 40 kilometers from Chisinau. Earthquakes have been simulated in Moldova earlier, but not of such a scale. The exercise “CODRII 2011” is organized by the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC) and the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Unit (EADRU). It forms part of the Partnership Work Program for 2011 and will involve a number of specialized international organizations, including the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA).