Earthquake in Neftegorsk.
In 1995, just over three thousand people lived in Neftegorsk, a small settlement built for oil workers. Seventeen five-story "Khrushchev" buildings, two two-story buildings, a school, four kindergartens, a club, a hospital - that's the whole infrastructure of this town. But, despite its small size, Neftegorsk was incredibly cozy. Here everyone knew each other, gathered in large companies in the yard. Yes, and how not to get acquainted, if all the children went to the only, new and bright school.
Last call 
Neftegorsk school
The night of May 28, 1995, the time on the clock is 1:03, behind last call, music is playing in the club - these are yesterday's schoolchildren celebrating such a long-awaited freedom from study, looking forward to the exam week. The couple quietly darted away from the noisy crowd, into the street, they wanted to quickly find themselves in each other's arms. A few steps beyond the threshold and a deafening roar literally knocked down. The roof of the club collapsed, leaving none of the classmates alive. The earthquake came in waves, the lovers fell to the ground and waited for everything to end. It seemed like an eternity had passed and a dead silence reigned in the city.
The earthquake in Neftegorsk lasted only 27 seconds. During this time, tremors with a force of 7.6 points destroyed the town to the ground. The five-story buildings stacked up like houses of cards. In one night, 2240 people died, including 308 children, 720 were seriously injured and only 30 were not injured. Nobody knew about the tragedy until the morning. Messages to the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived almost simultaneously. 
Destroyed Neftegorsk
The head of the Neftegorsk police department left for the dacha in the evening. When he returned, he simply did not see the city, instead of cozy streets there were destroyed houses. Almost simultaneously with him, the pilots of a helicopter flying to neighboring Okhta learned about the tragedy, more Big City, which also suffered from tremors, but not as badly as Neftegorsk.
From the memoirs of the rescuers: “From the helicopter, a multi-kilometer crack was visible, so deep that it seemed that the earth had burst ...” The evacuees shared their memories: “We saw how the earthquake destroyed the earth’s crust, in some places the tops of the mountains were leveled, became of the same height, in some places the earth was torn apart, in one place a huge ravine was formed, and from it rails protruded upward, torn railway." There was no communication, water or even food in the city. Those who were not buried in the rubble were forced to sort out the rubble of the tiny store on their own in order to drink and eat. Roads were also destroyed, transport communication was carried out exclusively by air.
Rescue operation 
There were no roads, communications, water and even food in the city.
By the time rescuers arrived, some of the residents managed to get out of the rubble by the forces of those who were not injured. Physically, they were practically fine, but psychological condition the oilmen were much worse off. They demanded that the employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations save their relatives, rushed into a fight, went from aggression to a state of extreme depression. Some drank vodka and sat on the ruins, others demanded that they be evacuated immediately.
The situation was aggravated by the difficult climatic conditions- minus temperature at night was replaced by daytime heat, up to +25? C. The bodies of the dead quickly decomposed, even experienced rescuers could not stand the smell. In addition, there was a risk of the spread of serious infectious diseases, everything had to be literally poured with a disinfectant solution. The hardest part was for those who survived under the rubble. 
Under the rubble remained alive ...
People were kept in tiny pockets for four or five days. Nearby were dead relatives and friends. A man in one of the apartments talked for two days through the wall with his son, who was crushed by a heavy closet. On the morning of the third day, the son died, and the father lost his mind. Those released from the ruins were forced to independently identify the bodies of their relatives, upholster the coffins with cloth. Because there was no one to do such work.
Several times a day, all equipment stopped working, the slightest sources of sound were turned off. Rescuers walked around the rubble and tried to hear those who survived in a stone trap. The last to be rescued was a man on the twelfth day. He was not badly hurt, he injured his leg in the fall. During the earthquake, he fell into the basement, where there were food supplies and some water, which allowed him to hold out for so long.
Marauding 
They even stole corpses...
Despite the fact that the natural disaster was the greatest tragedy, there were those who sought to profit. During the excavation of the rubble, people were found with crushed fingers - those who tried to get into the destroyed apartments and take out valuables, but could not. Shaky slabs moved, instantly carrying out the sentence to the robbers. Most often, these were residents of nearby villages who arrived as part of a rescue mission. The local population was in a state of shock and could not even think about enrichment.
They even stole corpses - the relatives of the dead could receive material compensation (up to one million rubles), but since there were no documents, the money was paid to those who would provide the body and receive a death certificate. However, realizing that fraud was being committed, payments were stopped a few days after the rescue work began.
Help from foreign rescuers 
Japanese doctors provided invaluable assistance.
The tragedy of 1995 was the first in which Russia completely refused the help of foreign first responders. The motivation was simple - the Russian Federation has enough equipment and people to carry out rescue operations. This decision was repeatedly criticized, many experts believed that the refusal of assistance was unreasonable. The arrows of the equipment were too short, and it took a very long time to clear some of the rubble.
However, history does not know the subjunctive mood, and it is difficult to say now whether the presence of additional personnel would have saved the situation or, on the contrary, aggravated it. The only ones who worked together with the Russians were Japanese doctors. They helped to evacuate the victims, carried out many complex operations on the territory of their country for free.
Neftegorsk: our days 
Monument to the victims of the Neftegorsk earthquake.
After the rubble was dismantled and the last body was buried, the city ceased to exist as an administrative unit. The restoration was considered inexpedient; only a cemetery and a small chapel remained on the territory of Neftegorsk.
Russia is the largest country in the world, which, due to the diversity of geographical, geological, climatic conditions, is exposed to various natural phenomena.
Russia - the territory of earthquakes
Their total number includes destructive earthquakes, representing tremors in the earth's crust due to unstable tectonic processes. Approximately 40% of the country is in the seismic risk zone (places with a frequency of earthquakes - about once every 500 years). According to scientists, Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka is considered the most dangerous city for life.
Alarming zones, where fluctuations with a force of 8-9 points were recorded, are Altai, the North Caucasus, Baikal with Transbaikalia, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Sayan Ridge and Sakhalin Island.
Sakhalin: 1995 earthquake
It was on Sakhalin that a 7.6-magnitude earthquake claimed the lives of 2,040 people in 1995. Over the past 100 years, it was the most destructive, ruthlessly erasing the city of Neftegorsk from the face of the Earth. Founded in 1964, it was conceived as a settlement for oil workers. It was located on the border of two in a seismically inactive zone (at least, it was thought so until 1995).
Tremors of different power (from 5 to 7 points) on the night of May 27-28 were felt throughout the region, but Neftegorsk got the most, because the epicenter of the earthquake was located 25-30 kilometers from it. Fluctuations with a force of 7.6 points for a minute erased Neftegorsk, which had been under construction for 30 years, from the face of the Earth. Later, after finding out the causes of the tragedy, it was found that the houses were built using the cheapest technology and the maximum that they could survive was a 6-magnitude earthquake. The colossal savings on human lives loudly reminded of itself on this tragic day.
The City That Wasn't
17 five-storey houses were destroyed, as well as medical institutions, shops, a school, kindergartens, broadcasting and communication facilities, the municipality, as well as the Palace of Culture, in which, on the occasion of the completion school year there was a disco. Of the 26 graduates, only 9 survived; out of 3197 inhabitants of the city - 1140 people.
The earthquake on Sakhalin in 1995 buried two-thirds of the inhabitants under the rubble, including the deaths of medical workers. Therefore, there was simply no one to provide first aid.
An oil pipeline was damaged and several as a result of which earth's surface a significant amount of oil spilled. significant damage was done, about which not a word was said.
More fortunate is the city of Okha, located 60 kilometers to the north, with a population of 45,000 people. On that terrible night, minor violations were observed in it, no human casualties were recorded.
Rescue operations in Neftegorsk
In the morning, after the earthquake occurred on Sakhalin, there was heavy fog on the island, which prevented rescue teams from reaching the scene of the tragedy. The nearest airport, where planes could land, was 65 kilometers, which, combined with bad roads, took a lot of time. Therefore, the lost time did not play in favor of the victims, few of them managed to be saved.
In total, 1,500 people, 25 aircraft, 24 helicopters, 66 vehicles took part in the rescue operation. On the 4th day, the number of vehicles involved increased to 267 units. It was on those fateful days when an earthquake occurred on Sakhalin that 5 minutes of silence was first applied, when once an hour all equipment fell silent, work stopped and conversations stopped in order to hear people under the rubble.
The city, which died in an instant, was decided not to be restored. A memorial and a chapel were built in its place. A cemetery with buried residents is located nearby.
After the tragedy that occurred in 1995 on Sakhalin, the earthquake swept a number of territories, albeit with less destruction. Altai Mountains suffered in 2003, Kamchatka in 2006, and Chechnya in 2008.
Sakhalin real-time seismic activity map
Today, everything has changed. Now every Internet user of Sakhalin Island can observe the seismic situation in the region. The map, developed by scientists specifically for the characteristics of this territory, allows you to monitor all fluctuations in real time earth's crust. New unique equipment is located at the Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics, and everyone has the opportunity to track the course of the earthquake and its parameters: epicenter coordinates, depth and amplitude. That is, it became possible to give the most correct assessment of the seismic event that occurred. Previously, scientists recorded tremors exclusively on paper; now 15 seismic sensors transmit information about the earth's crustal vibrations to the data processing center.
May 28, 1995 was the day of a terrible tragedy in Russia. A catastrophic earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 magnitudes (at the epicenter, the intensity was X points on the MSK-64 scale) occurred in northern Sakhalin and literally wiped the village of Neftegorsk from the surface of the Earth. Of the 3,200 inhabitants of the village, 2,247 people died, including 308 children. Of the nearly 400 wounded, more than 150 died in hospitals. On the eve of the earthquake, the last bell sounded at the school in Neftegorsk. Of the 26 graduates of 1995, only 9 survived.
The surviving residents of Neftegorsk were transported to other settlements on Sakhalin or to other regions of Russia. Their life was divided into two halves - before and after the earthquake.
The Neftegorsk earthquake is considered the most destructive in the last 100 years in Russia, and in the 20th century it became the second major tragedy in Sakhalin region after the tsunami in November 1952 after the strongest Kamchatka earthquake. Then a giant tsunami over 10 meters high hit the region, and 14,000 people on the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka became victims of the earthquake and tsunami.
They say that time heals. But is it possible to cure the crippled souls and bodies of the oil mountaineers, alleviate the grief of parents and console orphans? From memory it is hardly possible to erase nightmarish frames in memory.
1995 was the year of unprecedented seismic activity in the Pacific zone. In the winter of 1995, an earthquake in the Japanese city of Kobe killed 5,300 people. Russian seismologists expected aftershocks in the Far East and Kamchatka. But no one expected an earthquake in Neftegorsk, partly because the north of Sakhalin is traditionally regarded as a zone with lower seismic activity than in the south of the island or the Kuril Islands. And the vast network of seismic stations on Sakhalin, built in Soviet times, had practically collapsed by 1995.
The earthquake was unexpected and frightening. Tremors with a force of five to seven points were felt in the city of Okha, the villages of Sabo, Moskalvo, Nekrasovka, Ekhab, Nogliki, Vostok, Kolendo. The most powerful shock was in Neftegorsk, which was located only 30 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake.
In fact, everything was short-lived - a push, and the once beautiful house turned into a shapeless heap. Although witnesses said that not all houses collapsed immediately, and some people even managed to jump out of the window awake, but falling concrete slabs knocked them to the ground.
Most of the oil mountaineers were killed in their own homes. For some, death was so unexpected that they did not even understand what had happened. But the real human tragedy occurred after the earthquake. Those who survived the earthquake were buried alive under the rubble in pitch darkness, silence, alone with their thoughts about the terrible fate of loved ones, with the knowledge of the inevitability of the end. Miraculously, the survivors rushed around the city, trying to find their relatives under the rubble. The chaos continued for several hours until rescuers arrived.
The reasons for such a terrible tragedy were not only and not so much a strong earthquake, but the disgusting quality of housing construction, most of the houses in Neftegorsk were large-block and they were built in the 60s of the XX century, built without taking into account the seismicity of the territory, as well as the night time of the earthquake (hour night local time), the shallow location of the source - only 10-15 kilometers and the proximity of Neftegorsk from the epicenter of the earthquake.
In Neftegorsk, the houses completely crumbled, this was not even during Spitak earthquake 1988. Mostly the inhabitants of the upper floors of the buildings survived, and those who lived on the first or second floor died almost all.
Rescue operation. During the day, units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were sent to the area of the tragedy, 25 aircraft, 24 helicopters and 66 vehicles were involved, but on the fourth day the number of vehicles increased. Rescue teams from Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Khabarovsk, army units worked in Neftegorsk. In total, 1642 people took part in the rescue work.
2,364 people were pulled out from under the rubble, but for the majority, help was already unnecessary.
Economic losses. 275 kilometers of oil pipelines, an oil pumping station, oil collection and preparation points were damaged. 200 production wells and one drilling rig failed, and the economic damage exceeded 125 billion rubles. However, it was later estimated that the total damage was much greater, and more expensive earthquake-resistant houses were needed in the area. It is believed that more than 600 billion rubles are needed for a full restoration.
On May 28, 2000, a monument was erected in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to those who died during the Neftegorsk earthquake.
Causes of an earthquake. Sakhalin is located in a place where four tectonic plates- Okhotsk, Amur, Pacific and Eurasian and earthquakes in this area can be quite strong. In the earthquake zone, the plates were displaced by 3.8 meters, and the length of the gap was 35 kilometers.
In 1995, just over three thousand people lived in Neftegorsk, a small settlement built for oil workers. Seventeen five-story "Khrushchev" buildings, two two-story buildings, a school, four kindergartens, a club, a hospital - that's the whole infrastructure of this town. But, despite its small size, Neftegorsk was incredibly cozy. Here everyone knew each other, gathered in large companies in the yard. Yes, and how not to get acquainted, if all the children went to the only, new and bright school.
Neftegorsk school
Last call
The night of May 28, 1995, the time on the clock is 1:03, the last bell is behind, music is playing in the club - these are yesterday's schoolchildren celebrating their long-awaited freedom from study, looking forward to the exam week. The couple quietly darted away from the noisy crowd, into the street, they wanted to quickly find themselves in each other's arms. A few steps beyond the threshold and a deafening roar literally knocked down. The roof of the club collapsed, leaving none of the classmates alive. The earthquake came in waves, the lovers fell to the ground and waited for everything to end. It seemed like an eternity had passed and a dead silence reigned in the city.
The earthquake in Neftegorsk lasted only 27 seconds. During this time, tremors with a force of 7.6 points destroyed the town to the ground. The five-story buildings stacked up like houses of cards. In one night, 2040 people died, including 308 children, 720 were seriously injured and only 30 were not injured. Nobody knew about the tragedy until the morning. Messages to the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived almost simultaneously.
Destroyed Neftegorsk.
The head of the Neftegorsk police department left for the dacha in the evening. When he returned, he simply did not see the city, instead of cozy streets there were destroyed houses. Almost simultaneously with him, the pilots of a helicopter flying to neighboring Okhta, a larger city that also suffered from tremors, but not as badly as Neftegorsk, learned about the tragedy.
From the memoirs of the rescuers: “From the helicopter, a multi-kilometer crack was visible, so deep that it seemed that the earth had burst…” the earth was torn apart, in one place a huge ravine was formed, and rails of a torn railway were sticking out of it. There was no communication, water or even food in the city. Those who were not buried in the rubble were forced to sort out the rubble of the tiny store on their own in order to drink and eat. Roads were also destroyed, transport communication was carried out exclusively by air.
Rescue operation
There were no roads, communications, water and even food in the city.
By the time rescuers arrived, some of the residents managed to get out of the rubble by the forces of those who were not injured. Physically, they were practically in order, but the psychological state of the oil mountaineers was much worse. They demanded that the employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations save their relatives, rushed into a fight, went from aggression to a state of extreme depression. Some drank vodka and sat on the ruins, others demanded that they be evacuated immediately.
The situation was aggravated by difficult climatic conditions - the minus temperature at night was replaced by daytime heat, up to +25º C. The bodies of the dead quickly decomposed, even experienced rescuers could not stand the smell. In addition, there was a risk of the spread of serious infectious diseases, everything had to be literally poured with a disinfectant solution. The hardest part was for those who survived under the rubble.
Under the rubble remained alive ...
People were kept in tiny pockets for four or five days. Nearby were dead relatives and friends. A man in one of the apartments talked for two days through the wall with his son, who was crushed by a heavy closet. On the morning of the third day, the son died, and the father lost his mind. Those released from the ruins were forced to independently identify the bodies of their relatives, upholster the coffins with cloth. Because there was no one to do such work.
Several times a day, all equipment stopped working, the slightest sources of sound were turned off. Rescuers walked around the rubble and tried to hear those who survived in a stone trap. The last to be rescued was a man on the twelfth day. He was not badly hurt, he injured his leg in the fall. During the earthquake, he fell into the basement, where there were food supplies and some water, which allowed him to hold out for so long.
Marauding
They even stole corpses...
Despite the fact that the natural disaster was the greatest tragedy, there were those who sought to profit. During the excavation of the rubble, people were found with crushed fingers - those who tried to get into the destroyed apartments and take out valuables, but could not. Shaky slabs moved, instantly carrying out the sentence to the robbers. Most often, these were residents of nearby villages who arrived as part of a rescue mission. The local population was in a state of shock and could not even think about enrichment.
They even stole corpses - the relatives of the dead could receive material compensation (up to one million rubles), but since there were no documents, the money was paid to those who provide the body and receive a death certificate. However, realizing that fraud was being committed, payments were stopped a few days after the rescue work began.
Help from foreign rescuers
Japanese doctors provided invaluable assistance.
The tragedy of 1995 was the first in which Russia completely refused the help of foreign first responders. The motivation was simple - the Russian Federation has enough equipment and people to carry out rescue operations. This decision was repeatedly criticized, many experts believed that the refusal of assistance was unreasonable. The arrows of the equipment were too short, and it took a very long time to clear some of the rubble.
However, history does not know the subjunctive mood, and it is difficult to say now whether the presence of additional personnel would have saved the situation or, on the contrary, aggravated it. The only ones who worked together with the Russians were Japanese doctors. They helped to evacuate the victims, carried out many complex operations on the territory of their country for free.
Neftegorsk: our days
Monument to the victims of the Neftegorsk earthquake.
After the rubble was dismantled and the last body was buried, the city ceased to exist as an administrative unit. The restoration was considered inexpedient; only a cemetery and a small chapel remained on the territory of Neftegorsk.
Mourning may be declared in Russia
On the evening of May 27, an earthquake occurred in the Okha district of the Sakhalin region. His strength was 7-9 on the Richter scale. The village of Neftegorsk suffered the most - it was almost completely destroyed. Of the 3.2 thousand inhabitants of the village, about 2 thousand people were under the rubble of buildings - the disaster occurred at the second hour of the night local time. At the time of issue of the issue, rescue work was ongoing, so the exact number of victims is unknown, but, apparently, it will exceed 1.5 thousand. This is the largest natural disaster in Russia in recent decades. Boris Yeltsin expressed his condolences and sympathy to the families of those killed and injured. According to presidential spokesman Sergei Medvedev, Yeltsin will appear on television today and will probably declare a national day of mourning.
As follows from the report of the chairman of the interdepartmental commission, head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu, an earthquake measuring 7-9 points occurred on May 27 at 17.05 Moscow time (01.05 May 28 local time). A second shock of the same magnitude occurred 70 minutes later.
The epicenter of both shocks had coordinates: 52.84 ° north latitude and 143.08 ° east longitude. The village of Neftegorsk (40 km from the epicenter) suffered the most
Of the 22 five-story houses in Neftegorsk, 17 were completely destroyed (five-story buildings, according to Western news agencies, were designed for a maximum of 7-point aftershocks). In addition, the one-story building of the Internal Affairs Directorate, a club (it hosted a disco), a polyclinic, a boiler room, a canteen, a school and a bakery were destroyed. Only two- and three-story buildings that were built after 1972, taking into account the high seismic activity of the region, survived the blows. These buildings received cracks, but did not collapse. The exact number of victims has not yet been established: rescue work will last until the end of this week. Yesterday, the death of 218 people, including 33 children, was accurately established (according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations; foreign news agencies reported 300 dead). About 300 wounded were hospitalized in the city of Okha, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 650 residents of Neftegorsk did not receive any injuries at all.
The total area of the territory that fell into the zone strong earthquake, amounted to 15 thousand km2 (55.4 thousand people live on it). In other settlements - Okha, Moskalvo and Sabo - the consequences of the disaster are less severe: power lines and telephone lines were damaged, some houses cracked, and balconies collapsed in some places.
First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Oleg Soskovets, Minister of Health and Medical Industry Eduard Nechaev, Minister of Transport Vitaly Efimov, Minister of Railways Gennady Fadeev, Minister of Construction Efim Basin arrived in Sakhalin. The governor of the region, Igor Farkhutdinov, and the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, are also there.
Oleg Soskovets has already signed an order according to which the Ministry of Finance should additionally allocate 30 billion rubles to the Ministry of Emergency Situations to resolve operational issues related to the conduct of emergency rescue operations and the life support of the affected area. At the same time, there is no data on the damage caused by the earthquake yet.
More than 500 people took part in the rescue work last night, including search and rescue services and civil defense units. Far East, Siberia and Moscow. Near natural disaster mobile medical posts and field kitchens have been deployed. Help continues to flow to the crash site.
Japan, South Korea and Armenia expressed their condolences and offered help. The Japanese government is ready to send 400 tents, 2.6 thousand sleeping bags, 5 thousand blankets and medicines to the victims. Seoul has decided to allocate $1 million to eliminate the consequences of the earthquake. Armenia is ready to help with experienced rescue teams.
For the transportation of goods from Russia and from abroad, an air bridge Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk - Okha - Neftegorsk was organized, in which more than 50 aircraft and helicopters are involved.
According to foreign information sources, the earthquake could cause an ecological catastrophe in the region. The fact is that part of the Okha-Neftegorsk pipeline was destroyed by tremors. More than 15 breakthroughs of the route belonging to the oil and gas producing association Sakhalinmorneftegaz occurred over 90 km. In addition, all wells in the area affected by the earthquake were destroyed. The oil pipeline is currently closed. However, the Ministry of Emergency Situations claims that there is no serious threat to environment No.
It is interesting that Russian scientists directly state that they did not predict this earthquake. According to the director of the Institute of Physics of the Earth Russian Academy Sciences Academician Vladimir Strakhov, in this area earthquakes with such a magnitude have never happened before. After the South Kurile earthquake in October 1994, seismologists, according to Mr. Strakhov, assumed that the next aftershocks should be expected in Kamchatka. However, everything went according to a different scenario - the disaster in Kobe in January 1995, and then a series of small earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean.
The academician explains the inaccuracy of short-term forecasts by the fact that they are based on the collection of information about earthquake precursors (changes in chemical composition groundwater, animal behavior, etc.), which are very rarely explicit. In addition, due to the cessation of funding in the country, a third of seismic stations are closed. A year ago, a seismological station was closed in Okha due to financial difficulties. Mr. Strakhov believes that the causes of the earthquake will be known after the clarification of all its circumstances on the spot.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Russian Expert Council on Earthquake Prediction, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Nikolaev has already put forward one of the versions of what happened. Mr. Nikolaev believes that prolonged oil development could "push" natural processes and initiate earthquakes in this seismically active region. Another probable cause of the earthquake on Sakhalin Island, the scientist called " general increase seismological activity of the Far East region".
According to Mr. Nikolaev, "in terms of the number of victims, the current earthquake on Sakhalin exceeds all earthquakes taken together in the entire history of Russia." In addition, he recalled that it is known from the experience of seismological observations that after each major earthquake, strong repeated tremors are possible for several weeks at a distance of up to several tens of kilometers from the previous epicenter.
CRIME DEPARTMENT